Free Credit Reports - How to Maintain Your Credit Profile

Maintaining your Credit Profile

Every consumer should be maintaining their credit profiles to guarantee the highest scores possible. To make so, you must first order your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. The federal Carnival Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) entitles you to a transcript of your credit
Report for free, provided you ran into the following criteria:

• You have got been denied credit because of information in your credit report within the last 60 days.

• You are currently unemployed and are seeking employment.

• You have public assistance.

• You believe that your credit data file incorporates mistakes owed to fraud or identity theft.

Additionally, you also may be able to get your credit report and credit score from other business or companies. For example, if you dwell in California and are shopping for a home loan, the lender must supply you with your credit score by law. Respective other states necessitate that credit scores be disclosed to consumers.

It’s possible to have a free transcript of your credit reports annually if you dwell in Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Green Mountain State and Maryland. Recently United States Congress passed a law which affords each of us the right to a free credit report annually. Below is a listing of the start days of the month for this peculiar program:

Consumers in the Western states — Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Equality State — tin tell their free reports beginning December 1, 2004.

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

Consumers in the Southern states — Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas — tin order their free reports beginning June 1, 2005.

Consumers in the Eastern states — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Occident Virginia — the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and all U.S. districts can order their free reports beginning September 1, 2005.

To take advantage of the free annual credit report, delight visit: www.annualcreditreport.com.

Why is it of import to "maintain our credit profile"? You have got got to have good credit, or at least nice credit, for a lender to see you as a worthy credit risk. With our credit score being used in everything from insurance to interest rates on loans, we need to guarantee that we manage our credit properly.

There is also the an epedimic going on called Identity Theft. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released a survey in May 2005 which stated that Identity Theft have caused over $52.6 billion dollars in entire losings for 2004. With over 4.6% of the population being effected by Identity Theft, you can never be too careful. Identity Theft is simply an individual assuming another identity, and often modern times leads to other financial law-breakings such as as credit card fraud, mortgage fraud, and check fraud.

By monitoring our credit reports frequently and utilizing our credit responsibily, we can take control of our financial hereafters to guarantee that our profiles are accurate.