How to Check Your Credit Information
Your credit history affects many aspects of your financial life such as applying for credit cards, a car loan, a bank loan or a mortgage. Your credit history can affect you personally, too. Prospective employers may ask to check your credit report as part of their background check. And information from your credit history is used extensively by marketers to help them target prospects for credit cards and other financial services.
So it is important to understand what kind of information credit files contain, and to review your personal credit history periodically. At the same time, it’s important to put credit reports in perspective.
Consumer Alert
For the last several years, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reported that identity theft is the nation’s fastest growing crime. The FTC also reports that most of the criminal activity it reports under the heading of identity theft can be traced to common sources: lost or stolen wallets and purses, theft of checks from mailboxes and fraud committed by family members.
In 2005, the provisions of an amendment to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) were enacted to allow all Americans to receive a free copy of their credit report every 12 months. The three major credit agencies created a single source system for handling consumer requests for information. During this period, with topics such as stolen data and increases in identity theft in the news, the credit agencies and other firms began offering a vast new range of credit monitoring services.
The “official” website created under the terms of the FCRA is annualcreditreport.com. However, if you type “free credit report” into an Internet search engine, you find dozens of websites offering to assist you. In testing several of these “other” websites, we have found that they frequently try to sell additional, and for most people, unnecessary products and services.
Your “free” credit report has become a business opportunity, so buyer beware.
Additionally, due to a law that was already in effect in New Jersey before the federal law went into effect, you are still entitled to receive free annual credit reports by contacting credit agencies individually. In practice, our testers have found that calling the toll-free numbers for each agency under your legal rights in New Jersey to be the fastest, most trouble-free way to obtain your free annual credit report.
What Is In a Credit Report?
There are four categories of information contained in your credit report.
- Identifying Information: your name, address, Social Security number, date of birth and employer(s). This information comes from credit applications you have filled out.
- Credit Information: includes your history of paying bills with credit grantors such as banks and retail stores. This information comes from companies that do business with you.
- Public Record Information: includes items that affect your creditworthiness such as tax liens and bankruptcies. This information comes from public records.
- Inquiries: includes the names of anyone who has requested a copy of your credit report for any reason. This information comes from the credit bureau.
Who Creates The Credit Report?
Credit reports are assembled by a credit bureau. A credit bureau is a clearinghouse for credit history information. Credit grantors provide the bureau with information on how their credit customers pay their bills. The bureau assembles this information, along with public record information, and creates a file on each consumer. Credit bureaus do not approve or reject consumer applications for credit; they merely report the information provided by credit grantors. There are three national credit bureaus: Experian (formerly TRW), Equifax and TransUnion. These agencies do not share information with one another, so to see your complete credit profile, you need to get a report from each agency.
How Long Do Negative Items Stay On A Credit Report?
The length of time a negative mark can stay on your credit report starts from the time you were late or when the late payment went into collection, not from the last time you made a payment on the account. Negative information generally can be reported for seven years, but there are exceptions. Bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years. Information reported from an application for a job with a salary of more than $20,000 and information reported from an application for more than $50,000 worth of credit or life insurance have no time limitations.
How Do You Obtain a Copy of Your Credit Report?
You can obtain a copy of your credit report by mail, over the phone or on the Internet. In our testing, employees at the NJSCPA found that ordering a free credit report by telephone was the easiest way to obtain free credit reports with the fewest interruptions and attempts to sell you additional products or services.
The “official” website for obtaining credit reports under the FCRA is annualcreditreport.com. It provides links to the three major credit agencies.
When you choose to get a free credit report, you are directed to the credit agency website where you will have to set up an account with a username and password. You will then have to verify your identity with information such as previous addresses, previous employers or account numbers. When your identity is verified, you will have an online view of your credit file information.
To request a copy of your credit file information by telephone, call 1-877-322-8228. You will need to provide verification information. The voice mail system will give you the option to choose to receive reports from one, two or all three agencies.
To request a copy of your credit file information by mail, you can print a form available online at www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/requestformfinal.pdf. Fill out the form and mail it back to the address printed on it. Again, you can request reports from one, two or all three agencies.
You can still request your free credit report by telephone under New Jersey law by calling the following numbers or writing to the addresses and providing the information listed below. When using the voice-mail ordering system, choose the options that indicate you are in a “free state.”
- Experian: You can receive a free copy of your credit report by calling 1-888-397-3742. The system will identify your call by the area code from where you are calling, and you can order your report.
- Equifax: : You can receive a free copy of your credit report by calling 1-800-685-1111. This phone system makes you “hold” for other options and go through two choices before inputting your zip code – to identify you as eligible for your free report.
- TransUnion: You can receive a free copy of your credit report by calling 1-800-888-4213. This has the longest voice mail menu. It tries to send you to other sources before finally offering you, as a New Jersey resident, your free credit report.
Web-Based Credit Reports
If you are in a rush, all three credit agencies offer paid access to your credit history online. Additionally, for a fee, you can get credit “scores” and other services.
