Credit Report Agencies, make sure they are holding the correct information about you
One of the most important things that you can have is a good credit rating. A credit report agency will hold information about you and your financial history, but is it always correct. Unfortunately in this day and age fraud is rife and if you do not check your credit report regularly you could be in for a nasty shock.
Many businesses check your credit history when they receive applications for credit, insurance and employment. They use the answers that they get to make informed decisions as to whether you get the credit or job that you have applied for. Apart form the fraud aspect where somebody steals your identity, there are other things that could cause your credit rating to fall. These could be due to a temporary loss of income, illness and more worrying a computer error.
Every 12 months you are entitled to a free copy of your report from one of the following credit report companies.
Equifax
Experian
TransUnion
The contents of your report include details of where you live, how you pay your bills and whether you have been arrested, sued or filed for bankruptcy.
If you do find a problem with your credit report then under the fair credit reporting act you have the right to dispute the information that it discloses. In the United States the Federal Trade Commission enforces the credit laws that protect your rights to get, use and maintain your credit. Theses laws will not gaurantee that businesses will give you credit but they will ensure that they give all consumers a fair and equal opportunity to get credit. They also give consumers the right to dispute any errors that they think might be on their credit file.
There are some companies that offer to let you know if your credit file is amended, but they will normally charge a monthly fee for this. In my opinion though for the small amount that they charge it is worth it for piece of mind. You do not want to find 12 months down the line from the credit report agencies that your credit record is absolutely destroyed by a case of identity theft.
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