Free Credit Identity Theft Submission

Truth About Free Credit Reports

We appreciate your desire to obtain a free credit report. The fact is that maintaining credit histories and providing reports to people is a business. No business that survives can give away its products for free.

Every web site providing "free" credit reports works with the three credit reporting bureaus. These sites can only offer you a brief review of your report. Most offer a free 3 day or 30 day view of your report from one of the three credit reporting agencies.

Creditors may not send reports of your credit transactions to all three bureaus. Thus, reports from each credit reporting bureau may differ. It's to your advantage to see your complete credit history in a "3-in-1" type report.

To see your full credit history from the three reporting bureaus you'll have to pay. To view your report over a period of time as your credit history changes you'll have to pay.

There is no way for any web site to provide your credit history outside of the three reporting bureaus. And the three credit reporting agencies are businesses; they charge for their services.

Identity Theft Fraud

How can someone commit identity theft?

The Federal Trade Commission explains how identity theft is committed: By co-opting your name, Social Security number, credit card number, or some other piece of your personal information for their own use. In short, identity theft occurs when someone appropriates your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft.

Once identity theft is committed, then what? Once identity thieves fake your identity, they:

• Open a new credit card account, using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number. When they use the credit card and don’t pay the bills, the delinquent account is reported on your credit report.
• Call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, change the mailing address on your credit card account. Then, your impostor runs up charges on your account. Because your bills are being sent to the new address, you may not immediately realize there's a problem.
• Establish cellular phone service in your name.
• Open a bank account in your name and write bad checks on that account.

Credit Report Scores - Computing Then

Your credit report scores are based on factors that appear in your credit reports:

• Bill payment history (Good: on time and for the full amount)
• Total outstanding debt (Good: non-mortgage loan payments less than 5% of gross income)
• Types of debt (Good: mortgage, car loans, Bad: high credit card debt)
• Length of credit history (Good: 3 or more years of on time payments)
• Credit inqueries (Bad: many rejected applications)

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) prohibits certain factors from being used in determining your credit report score:

• Personal details such as sex, marital status, age, race, national origin, or because you receive public assistance income
• Sources of income such as regular alimony, child support, or separate maintenance payments

The Equal Credit Opportunity Act provides actions for you to take if suspect unauthorized factors are being used to deny you credit.

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