Getting your free report

In September 2005, the law passed by Congress finally made it into effect and allowed every person to order one free copy of their credit history a year. Since there are three major credit bureaus - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion - you can order one from each bureau in turn and get a snapshot of your financial affairs every four months. Why should you bother? Well, Congress thought it was a good idea because it helps to reduce the problem of identity theft. If everyone checks their credit history on a regular basis, they should be able to identify any suspicious activity. It's that, "Hey, I never ordered that new credit card" moment we all dread. Except actually getting a copy of the report is not quite as easy as it's supposed to be. When the system first kicked into action, the Federal Trade Commission received several thousand complaints from people who could not order their reports. This is an unusually high number. Firstly, it shows how much pent-up demand there was for access to these reports. Secondly, it shows how important it is for officials to get a working system in place from Day One.

So what was going wrong? The most common problem was related to the quality of the information on file. People would submit their personal details and be rejected because their "real" information did not match the "data" on file. Access by the public was set up through a security system that assumed the data on file was always right. Big mistake. The quality of data is only as good as all the people who input it. So although we can applaud a security system that protects us from scammers trying to pass themselves off as us, there has to be a fallback position that allows people to have this faulty data corrected. The second problem was ironic. The security system was set up to ensure that people only got free reports when they were due. So if the scammers got in first, the real people were refused access because "they" had already received their annual report. Very reassuring.

So how do you get your free credit report? Well, avoid all the scam internet sites that appear to be offering your "free" reports but actually charge you through the backdoor. There are hundreds of look-alike sites that try to deceive consumers. Never sign up for any service that asks you for money. The official site runs under the URL www.AnnualCreditReport.com. There's also a toll free telephone line - (877) 322-8228 - and a real-world address - Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. Most of the early problems have now been solved allowing people easier access to their report. So what do you get after you have jumped through all the hoops? You get your credit history. That's all the transactions recorded against your name by your creditors. You do not get your credit scores. The reason for this is simple. Every lender has a different formula for working out whether you are a "good" credit risk. Getting one bureau's calculation is no guarantee of how the others will do the math. So work through the credit report and protect your interests.