Buy Credit Report

One of the many things that credit card holders in the US are not aware of is that they don’t need to buy a credit report so as to know their credit worthiness and their credit information.

The days of buying credit reports ended when legislation was passed to give US credit card holders the right to get free credit reports. The main reason for this was identity theft.

This means that there were certain individuals who were running into debts when they were not using their credit cards. There were other people who had their credit card information and would use them to run up bills landing people into debts.

It was found out that an identity theft occurs to one American every second of the day and night. It is because of this that in December 2003, The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act was passed to handle the issue of identity theft.

This Act also allowed the card holders to receive up to 2 credit reports in a year. This meant that one would not need to buy credit report.

In addition to the above legislation, there were 3 credit reporting companies that were chosen to be responsible for giving the free credit reports to credit card holders. These included Equifax, Trans Union and Experian.

This made it possible for any credit card holder, who is a US citizen, to get a free report from any of these companies. The 3 reporting companies are the same but work independently. Each produces an independent report from the other.

Therefore, if you value your credit rating, then you may want to get a free copy of your credit report. In this way, you will be able to note all inaccuracies and mistakes on it.

With all the fraud that is going on it is very important to keep up to date with ones credit reports. Before, it used to be hard to get it because people had to buy credit report. But now it is possible to have access to them for free.

It is important to have your credit protected to keep fraudsters from using up your credit facilities. If one has charges because of the fraudulent dealings, they can be removed, but the longer one stays, the more damage that is done.

As stated earlier, it is possible for a credit card holder to get up to 2 credit reports. Furthermore, one has to look for ways to protect their credits. Unprotected credit reports have been found to be prime targets for criminals.

What most of them do when they got hold of one’s credit is to change the address and contact information so that the card holder is not aware of the past due balances.

This is why it is a priority to check one’s credit report.