Free Credit Report – Consumers Could Be Deceived

Consumers if they are not careful are being deceived by some of these commercials regarding Free Credit Reports. Let’s face it, I have seen the Free Creditreport.com commercials? Several months ago I watched the commercials about Freecreditreport.com and took the time to read the fine print. The credit report is not actually free, you have to enroll in “The Triple Advantage Program” which monitors your credit report.

If you truly want a free credit report and you cannot wait for snail mail, the only authorized site to give a free credit report is www.annualcreditreport.com . I recommend you only order one and not all three since you can only get them one time free during the year and you don’t want to get them all at once. This would keep you from being able to see how your credit is doing the remainder of the year.

I recommend you do it the old fashioned way by sending a letter in the mail. Be sure that you understand that you are not getting a credit score on this free report. In order, to get your credit score on your credit report, it is going to cost you.

I do believe that if you are in the position of cleaning up your credit, you should know what your credit report is when you start. This way after you do all the work, you can see how much it has improved.

The process should be as follows:

(1) Order the credit report from one of the major credit bureaus

(2) Once received, go through the report and decide which information is incorrect.

(3) Dispute the information that is in error in writing and attach your proof.

(4) Mail your erronenous credit report. When you mail it, be sure to include certified receipt so you can pinpoint when you should receive a response.

(5) The credit bureaus have to respond within 30 days.

(6) Once you receive the corrected credit report back, then prioritize your outstanding bills. *I recommend from lowest to highest.

(7) Pay the lowest one off first even if you have to budget it out over a couple of months. If you are paying by check or credit card, make sure you get a receipt or copy your check.

(8) Once the first one is paid off, make sure you get documentation that it is paid and keep copies of checks. Believe me this helps you in the long run.

(9) Move on to the second one and apply money that you utilized to pay the first one to also aid you in paying the second one. 

CAUTION: Do not contact all your creditors at once to pay off your debt. Take it one creditor at a time!