Identity Theft and Your Personal Credit Report

Creditors and lenders use an individual’s credit report in order to determine whether he or she is eligible for credit cards, loans, and other financial services. Once you do check on your credit report, make sure that you look for the three most important things and that includes identity theft, credit score, and possible mistakes.

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Identity Theft

In today’s times, identity theft is not an entirely new form of crime. In fact, millions of people have fallen victims to identity theft criminals. Said criminals and thieves can use all your personal information to make purchases and commit fraud using your name. There are ways to monitor identity theft and it would greatly help if you regularly review your credit standing. If you review your report, you can easily tell if something is wrong and if you suspect that a third party is using your personal information, file the appropriate complaint. By doing so, you can save your family from financial problems in the future.

Credit Score

Do you know what your credit score is? It is a 3-digit number and you usually see it on credit reports. The scores can range from five hundred to eight hundred fifty. People aim to have higher credit scores because it gives them more chance to get good credit.

Before applying for any credit transaction, you have to review your score. Once you’ve reviewed it, you can already assess how much opportunity is available to you. You can also anticipate for the possible interest rate that will be charged on your loans or any other line of credit.

Possible Mistakes

People make mistakes and even credit bureaus do. So what can you do about it? The answer to that question is quite simple – check your credit report. You can obtain your credit report from the three credit reporting bureaus. They have their online sites so it will be very easy to secure an annual copy of the report.

Mistakes can happen and it can happen to anyone’s credit report. No one wants to be denied any credit transaction just because of a tiny mistake on the credit report. So by securing a personal copy of your report, you can check it for any possible mistakes. You can also check the personal information contained therein like your account status, marital status, payment histories, and open creditors. If ever you find a mistake on your report, it is your primary responsibility to report it. Be sure to inform the credit bureau immediately so that the necessary change or changes can be made. You can’t depend on the credit bureaus to check your credit for you so do your task and you can benefit from it.

Creditors and other third parties judge you according to the credit reports that they receive. It makes sense for every individual to pull their own credit reports. At least they will have an idea of what other people are looking for in the reports.

According to state and federal laws, every individual is entitled to secure one copy of their credit report for free annually. This is already a great opportunity to check your credit standing so don’t waste it. If you’re not satisfied checking your report once a year, you can always pay a fee in order to get a copy of it more than once.

Add comment October 22nd, 2007

Credit Bureau Identity Theft: Prevent Identity Theft by Checking Your Credit Reports on the Three Major Credit Bureaus Regularly

Imagine waking up one morning getting a call from credit card companies asking when you plan on paying your bills. You can’t help but wonder because you always pay your bills on time. You then visit the credit bureau and asked for your credit report. After seeing page after page of your credit report, you saw that there were new accounts opened in your name with credits nearly maxed out and that the bills were way past due. This is a dreaded situation that you want to avoid. This is an example of being a victim of identity theft.

Identity theft is one of the most serious crimes in today’s society. It is a crime that can happen to anyone. Whether you are single or married and regardless of your age, gender and where you live, you are vulnerable to this kind of crime.

First of all, identity theft happens when someone pretends to be you. These criminals can open a new account in your name by using your personal information. So, just how can someone get a hold of your personal information? The answer to this question is that criminals or identity thieves can get a hold of your personal information through several methods. One is by getting a hold of a document you discarded or they stole from you that contain your name, birth date, address and your social security number.

When they get a hold of this information, they will be able to pretend to be you and start opening new accounts in your name.

As you can see, identity theft can be one serious crime that can hit you without you knowing about it before it’s too late. This is why it is important that you should monitor your credit report regularly, with a service like Equifax Credit Monitoring, in order for you to know if there are any suspicious activities in your credit report.

You can get your credit report from the three major credit bureaus. Here, you will be able to obtain your credit report once a year for free. However, if you want to constantly monitor your credit report, you can request for it for a fee.

There are quite a lot of ways to prevent identity theft and monitoring your credit report is one of them. Although just monitoring your credit report from the three major credit bureaus is not enough to stop the criminal to commit fraud or identity theft, it is a way to know what is happening in your finances.

Once you notice any kind of suspicious activities in your credit report, it is important that you should immediately tell the authorities about the activity. They will be able to freeze the account and help in catching the person who is committing identity theft.

You can also try purchasing an identity theft protection service. Here, the company offering this kind of service will be able to check your credit report regularly and see if there are any unknown address in your name and also unknown accounts in your name. The credit report will contain everything you do financially. So, if anyone pretends to be you and starts opening credit card accounts, you will be able to know about it and take the necessary actions to stop it.

These are the things you should know about credit reports. With this tool, you will be able to monitor anything that you do financially and also monitor if there are any suspicious activities going on with your accounts.

Add comment September 19th, 2007