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East Coast residents from Maine to North Carolina, along with people who live in U.S. territories, will be able to get one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus starting September 1. Those consumers are the last group to become eligible for a program the government has been rolling out across the country since December.
Jen Schwartzman, a spokeswoman for the Federal Trade Commission, says the agency has received few complaints and believes the process is going smoothly. Consumers, however, report mixed results. Liz Brooks, a senior at University of Alaska-Anchorage who has a relatively simple credit history (one credit card), says it took her five minutes to get her report from Equifax.
For Jeff and Keri Boyd of Springdale, Ark., the process was more complicated. Jeff decided to get his free report from Experian, and Keri obtained hers from TransUnion. Jeff had to provide his mother's maiden name and answer one other question. But Keri was asked to provide her mortgage-loan history, along with the monthly payment and current and previous lenders.
Sandra Reed of Pollock Pines, Cal., also hit a snag at TransUnion. When she requested her report last December, she was asked to list the numbers for three credit-card accounts. After being told that she could not be identified, Reed gave up on getting a report. Cliff O'Neal, a spokesman for TransUnion, says his company has such stringent standards for validating identity because "we don't want to send your report to someone else."
Reed recently requested a report from Experian. This time, she says, "it wasn't as scary." And she did have to make important corrections. "My social security number was wrong, and they listed my mother's address as a previous address for me," she says.
Where to start
Monitoring your credit report is your best line of defense against credit-card fraud and identity theft. According to a study by Javelin Strategy & Research, fraud victims were much more likely to spot a problem than were credit-card issuers.
To get started, go to www.annualcreditreport.com (or call 877-322-8228). Be sure to type in the correct Web address. That may sound simple, but it's easy to make a mistake among hundreds of similar addresses, says Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum.
When you go online, you'll be asked to type in your name, address and social security number (you may request that only the last four digits be displayed on-screen). You then select which company's report you want to receive, and you'll be linked to the Web site of that credit bureau.
To verify your identity, you'll be asked several questions based on information in your credit report, so have your personal and credit information ready. (If you request all three reports at once, you'll be asked to identify yourself each time.) You may be asked the name of your mortgage lender and the amount of your monthly payment, or who holds your car loan or student loans. You may also be asked to enter previous addresses. If you answer incorrectly, you'll be locked out of the online system and told that you must get your report by mail, which can take up to 15 days.
Keep a copy
Once you get your report, print out a copy or download it and save it to your computer. Each credit bureau will give you access to your report online for 30 to 90 days.
Stagger your requests from each of the three bureaus. That way, you can get a report every four months and monitor your credit history throughout the year. If you have any problems, you can file a complaint with the FTC (www.ftc.gov; 877-382-4357).
Note that your credit score is not included with your credit report. You can order it for between $5 and $7 through AnnualCreditReport.com when you request your report. That's a bargain because the bureaus usually charge $15 for a credit report and credit score.
-- Research: Elizabeth Kountze
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