Are you at the point in your life where you are going to making some serious financial decisions which will impact the rest of your life? One such decision could be the purchase of your very first home. But you just don’t know if your credit worthy or not.
There is a way you can find out fairly quickly. You simply can go on-line and request your instant credit report.
If you are the type of person who wants to get it done and over with as quickly as possible; you could go to a on-line site which gives you access to all 3 main credit information suppliers. The information you will be looking for comes from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.
Once you get on one of these sites, it’s relatively easy for you to get the reports. You will only have to answer certain questions which will verify who you say you are. When you have completed the short questionnaire you will be given access to your credit report.
Most people think they have to go through someone else to get the reports from the big three reporting agencies. Frankly, that is a myth. You have just as much right as anyone else to request a credit report on yourself. In fact it’s the law.
You can go directly to the big three. Not only do they have there company report on you, they can also give you access to the other two agencies instant credit report on you. In addition to your credit report they provide additional information about things that can affect your credit standing and other services.
As you know identity theft has become a billion dollar criminal industry. It has been reported that this type of criminal activity will continue to grow in leap and bounds through the foreseeable future. All three credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian, offer a monthly credit monitoring service; for a very reasonable fee. If you subscribe to this service, you will be notified of any suspicious credit activity before it can get out of hand.
This is not to say the Big Three credit agencies are the only ones who offer credit monitoring. There are hundreds of these companies who offer the service. Unfortunately you may find some of these companies don’t have the best business ethics. When they give you your instant credit report, they also will monitor your credit for 30 days at no charge. However, there is a little catch!
When the 30 days is up, if you don’t cancel it, the monitoring service will continue automatically. (By the way some of the companies don’t remind you). Guess what happens then? You get a bill for the monitoring service and if you don’t pay it, they report it to the Big 3 as a bad debt. Now is that the pits or what?
Perhaps the most important tip you should take away from this report is you are entitled to only one free credit report a year. This includes the one you may have requested on line. Therefore it is important for you to download all three reports from the big three. It would be a good idea if you would print it out and file with your other important papers.
Once you have received your instant credit report you will be able to determine if you are credit worthy to move forward with your financial decisions.