Friday, May 22nd, 2009 |
I received the following email from Monica on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission. I think this information is important. While she doesn’t specifically mention any particular sources that claim to provide a free credit report, I will: freecreditreport.com is NOT where you get your free annual credit report! Freecreditreport.com will require you to sign up for credit monitoring service and pay a monthly fee in order to get a credit report.
Her email in full is posted below.
Hi Ryan,
I hope this note finds you well.
My name is Monica, and I’m writing on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection to let you know about two new videos highlighting the differences between AnnualCreditReport.com – the only authorized source for free annual credit reports – and other sites that only claim to offer “free” credit reports. You and The Better Credit Blog readers know the importance of checking your credit report each year as a step towards improving and maintaining your credit, which is why I thought you might be interested in the videos and in learning more about AnnualCreditReport.com.
Despite the deceiving jingles and musical claims of some TV commercials, the only authorized source to get your free annual credit report under federal law is AnnualCreditReport.com. Other sites require users to pay hidden fees or agree to additional services in order to get a free credit report. If consumers don’t cancel the service during a short trial period, they’re likely to pay membership fees. The FTC encourages consumers not to pay for something they can get for free.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees consumer access to a free credit report from each of the three nationwide reporting agencies – Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion – every twelve months. With AnnualCreditReport.com, visitors have access to truly free credit reports, with no hidden fees or trial memberships. As mentioned, the FTC has released two videos highlighting the differences between AnnualCreditReport.com and other sites that claim to offer “free” credit reports. Both videos are available at www.ftc.gov/freereports and on YouTube .
I hope you’ll check out the videos, and please feel free to post and share them with Better Credit Blog readers. I’m sure they’ll appreciate knowing about the authorized and free way to get this important information, especially in these difficult economic times.
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you would like more information.
Thank you,
Monica [last name removed]
on behalf of the Federal Trade Commission
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Saturday, September 13th, 2008 |
Good evening everyone! As you may have noticed, I have added Community Forums to the site. As this just launched today, they are pretty empty but I am looking forward to an active community that will offer you yet another platform to learn about credit and improve your credit score. Please don’t be shy about posting in the forums! I have made contacts with a few other bloggers who host financial-related blogs that are going to help administrate and answer questions.
Follow this link to ask a question or join in the discussions Note: I have also created a tab at the top labeled “Forums” if you’d rather use that 
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Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 |
A couple of years ago I found myself 20 grand in debt –a mix of credit cards, random medical bills, and old college debt. I am starting this blog because when I decided to tackle the challenge of settling my debts and increasing my credit score I found that there were (and still are) very few resources on the internet to guide a person through this process. I simply wanted to hear someone’s personal experiences and suggestions. Unfortunately, at the time, I didn’t find the right resources and I became too impatient.
There are of course an array of websites that sell services that promise to increase your credit score, but in all honestly my logic could not justify paying someone to help me get out of debt –it seemed more like I would be getting myself in more debt. I have since learned that most of these companies (even the so-called nonprofit organizations) will indeed cost you more money than good they will do. I will talk more about this in another post, but in short: these companies aren’t in any better position to settle your debts than you –it’s not like they possess some secret relationship with creditors that allows them to negotiate.
The first steps I took to improve my credit score were all wrong and it cost me a lot of money that I could have otherwise saved. In the next post I will outline my first mistake and tell you the best way to go about it. Keep in mind that everyone’s situation is different and while many of the resources and steps provided on this blog will be helpful in determining a general method to go forward, some circumstances require different approaches. In this case please Send me an
email. Also, if there is some information you can’t find on this blog, shoot me an email and I’d be glad to give you my two cents.
One last note: I’m not a debt or credit professional, but I did get myself out of a lot of debt and go from a credit score of 520 (horrible) to 750+ in about 2 years.
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