Free Annual Credit Reports / Credit Scores

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS

A most valuable free product offered to all consumers with a social security number, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) provides this free service that everyone in the nation should take advantage of for the purpose of making sure the information on their credit profiles is accurate. Any surprises should be addressed as these could cost you in higher interest offered, if at all, in the event you need to finance something to support your family.

There are three options to obtain your Free Annual Credit Report. The one I recommend to most is a toll free telephone call at 1-877-FACT-ACT (322-8228). The second most popular is the web site (Annual Credit Report . Com) which can be a bit tricky to navigate, and the questions with choice of answers is not always as easy as one may think; an incorrect answer will require a request via regular mail. The third option is via the mail, and always recommended if you have not applied for credit since a recent move, because your address is not in the system, so they will request additional information through the mail anyway.

In any correspondence with the credit bureaus you will need to include a valid Driver’s License or picture ID with the correct mailing address, your choice of a Passport or your social security card, and one other proof of residence document (e.g., utility bill, bank statement, cancelled check, insurance card). I further recommend you have the request Notarized to remove any doubt about your identity.

ADDRESSES:

Experian P.O. Box 9701 Allen, TX 75013
Equifax Information Service LLC P.O. Box 105314 Atlanta, GA 30348
TransUnion Consumer Relations P.O. Box 2000 Chester, PA 19022

The US Postal Service will tell you the Zip Code for TransUnion is not correct, but it is the one you will get in their report.

ABOUT THOSE CREDIT SCORES

In the year 2000 the financial industry adopted the FICO Scoring model as a means to evaluate consumers credit worthiness. No education on how this affects people was ever offered, and there is a lot of misinformation floating around about the ins and out on this subject. We at Austin Credit Group are Subject Matter Experts (SME) on Credit.

One common example of misinformation is the closing of credit card accounts; why does closing a credit card account affect your credit score? In most cases people close accounts they haven’t used in a while. This is a big mistake, because the longer an account is open the more weight the account carries in the scoring. Closing older accounts have much more influence on the credit score than closing a newer one. Keeping older accounts active is imperative to maintaining a higher credit score. Department Store credit is probably the worst in this area, because most now accept major credit cards, so consumers don’t carry the store’s card. These will close due to inactivity, and it does not matter who closes the account, because the time on the account is lost to the scoring program.

Our focus at Austin Credit Group is to help people raise their credit scores as quickly as possible, and to give many their life back!

To best determine what you should do to improve your credit score we recommend our Profile Review Program. For just $100 you will gain tremendous education on what steps you can take to improve your credit score and save hundreds on your next car loan or thousands on a mortgage. We know of no one in the industry that will do this for you at so little cost.

Do you know someone that should talk with us? Please send them this link.