More info at FTC.gov: Click here (http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/freereports.htm)


Consumers in the Midwestern states — Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin — can order their free reports beginning March 1, 2005.

thanks for the info.

thanks. this is great!

Which company should I request from? The choices are from the big 3- Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

All should have the same info, but I have heard that one (Trans Union?) tends to score you too high.

Which company should I request from? The choices are from the big 3- Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union.

All should have the same info, but I have heard that one (Trans Union?) tends to score you too high.

from what i read very quickly on the page, you have right to get one report from each company every year, so if you do it one by one, you are covered every 4 months or so and will have a free 'credit monitoring service' of your own. which is very nice.

however, if you already suspected that there are inaccuracies in one or all of them, and you would like to compare what they have side by side to investigate the matter, just order all three at the same time. and then if you are sure that you have no problem in all three, next year you can start doing the 'once every 4 months' thing.

that's just my thinking though.

I think you're right. Good call.

Well, I got all three of mine today. Actually, the transunion free site is slow as hell. Their pay site flies! I know this because everything crashed and I was left without a URL to go to so I just went into their regular site and logged in. No credit report to be found.

My credit is going to take some cleaning. Equifax says I was born in 1912 or something. LOL. Where's the old man with a cane emoticon?

My credit is going to take some cleaning.
Good idea, I would suggest checking all 3 credit bureau's and get busy filing disputes.


Equifax says I was born in 1912 or something. LOL. Where's the old man with a cane emoticon?


More importantly where are your social security checks and AARP discounts???

heh, got mine from Equifax. The only thing on it were student loans, which leaves without a credit score right now. I'll have to get a secured credit card or something that way I can build up my credit.

An interesting thing I found is that my gas company is reporting my payments to the credit bureaus.

I'll have to get a secured credit card or something that way I can build up my credit.
Good idea and here are some great choices (http://www.gottadeal.com/deal-info-id-7964-store-gottadeal.html).

Personally I would apply for the CitiBank Dividend Platinum Select (http://www.ncsreporting.com/LinkTrack/Redirect.asp?LinkID=CDP10724) it's a great credit card.

An interesting thing I found is that my gas company is reporting my payments to the credit bureaus.
That is interesting but not uncommon for utility companies to do that.

That is interesting but not uncommon for utility companies to do that.

Yeah, agreed. I've just haven't seen it for any other companies.

Oh another thing that was kind of cool, was to see how many times my credit had been accessed as an unofficial request. Those requests don't show up when someone pulls your credit (so it doesn't hurt you) but now I can see where all those darn credit card offers came from. LOL

Poo. I have to wait till June 1. And I have a lot of checking that needs to be done, too. I was hoping to do it this month. I don't want to have to pay, but I'm not signing up for those "credit monitoring" services that give "free" reports either.

Oh another thing that was kind of cool, was to see how many times my credit had been accessed as an unofficial request.
Agreed.

One of my wife's credit card issuers continue to increase her credit limit without her requesting it. It's gotten so bad that we're considering sending a letter asking them to please cease from automatically increasing her credit limit.

I'll have to get mine as soon as I get home - thanks for the heads-up! :g_thumbri

Did you West Coast GD'ers take advantage of this already?

Good idea and here are some great choices (http://www.gottadeal.com/deal-info-id-7964-store-gottadeal.html).

Personally I would apply for the CitiBank Dividend Platinum Select (http://www.ncsreporting.com/LinkTrack/Redirect.asp?LinkID=CDP10724) it's a great credit card.
Boo! I just tried to apply for the Citi Bank Card and got the standard "further processing is required at this time" message.

Boo! I just tried to apply for the Citi Bank Card and got the standard "further processing is required at this time" message.

i remember when i applied for mine, they asked for a copy of my phone bill, a copy of a paystub, and something else... it seemed like a semi hassle but i still went through with it, and i got my shiny citibank dividends card. :yelclap:

from what i read very quickly on the page, you have right to get one report from each company every year, so if you do it one by one, you are covered every 4 months or so and will have a free 'credit monitoring service' of your own. which is very nice.

however, if you already suspected that there are inaccuracies in one or all of them, and you would like to compare what they have side by side to investigate the matter, just order all three at the same time. and then if you are sure that you have no problem in all three, next year you can start doing the 'once every 4 months' thing.

that's just my thinking though.

If you find an error on one, just simply mail the all three credit reporting agencies a dispute. If they are reporting the same error, they will open a dispute, if one of them doesn't have that account, you'll get a letter in the mail saying that that specific account was not on your report.

Order one credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies every 4 months and dispute to all three. Basically, spread it out.

Thanks! I had to go through Experian. I have to wait until June to get one from Equifax and Trans Union wanted me to answer questions to verify(which I have no problem with), but was asking where I worked in 2004 which I haven't worked since 1990.

Thanks for the info. I just got my transunion and think I will wait a few months to get another.