Free Credit Report Scam
In September 2005 a law was passed stating that all Americans are entitled to a free credit report every year. Since the law was passed however there has been quite a lot of confusion about how to do so. The reason so many Americans are confused is because every site that claims to give us a free credit report is also asking for our credit card information. If they need our credit card information how is it free? This is how a free credit report scam works.
In most cases you are giving your credit card information to sign up for a thirty day trial to some type of credit service. These services have nothing to do with you receiving your credit report. The catch is that after you thirty day trial you need to cancel your service. The real scam with these free trials is that if you don’t cancel the service your credit card will be charged a fee every month. How many of us do you think forget to cancel at the end of the trial? Quite a few, that’s how these free credit report scams work.
Why is it that companies can force these free trials on us when we are legally entitled to a free credit report? Many people are confused about this and it’s hard to understand. For anyone who wants to cut through the entire trial offer free credit reports you can go to www.AnualCreditReport.com. This is the only site available that gives you a truly free credit report.
Not only is this site completely free, it’s also very secure. It has both physical and technological security as well as encryption. The reason this is so important is that your credit report has much information that if seen by the wrong people could resort in identity theft.
Many may wonder why more people don’t use this site considering it is the only one that is truly free. Well, there is one catch. You will not be able to view your credit score with this free credit report. It may seem like this makes the site useless but there are reasons to see your credit report without seeing your credit score.
It is important to see your credit report to check for errors. More than forty percent of all credit reports have an error listed on them. If you can find them in time to fix them you can prevent any bad reporting. If you call the credit bureau about an error they have to clear it up within thirty days. It is also a good idea to check your credit report to make sure that you aren’t a victim of identity theft.
The question now is where to get your credit score. This is where many people get confused. The truth is that the law that was passed entitled all Americans to a free credit report, not a free credit score. If you want to see your credit score you will need to pay for it.