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Many people are worried about their credit score and look for ways to do their credit checking online. While credit agencies used to keep such information next to impossible to obtain, there are now a number of ways for a consumer to do their credit checking online.
Thanks to federal legislation, consumers can do credit checking online by visiting a single Web site. All three major credit reporting agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, are now required by law to give consumers access to their credit reports for free once a year. By going to annualcreditreport.com, consumers can see what their credit report holds. All three credit bureau reports can be different, so getting all three major credit reports is a way to make sure your credit has not been adversely affected in a way that was picked up by one credit agency and missed by others.
If any faulty information is found through credit checking online, the consumer must file a complaint or protest with the credit agency reporting it. This will require backing documentation and may take a long period of time, but it is important for consumers to keep on the effort and hound the credit bureaus to clean the mistakes off their reports.
There are other ways to do credit checking online beyond going to annualcreditreport.com, but these methods will not be free. In fact, some can be quite costly. Some “credit monitoring” companies offer the option of credit checking online, but don’t give out the full story immediately. Their version of credit checking online normally allows the consumer to check one of their three credit scores, but will not allow them to check the others unless they sign up for a program that can cost $80 or more a year. Once the consumer signs up for the “credit monitoring” service, the company will then allow them to begin credit checking online. One of the advantages of these services are that, unlike the government report that can be checked once a year, these companies can allow you to do your credit checking online as many times as you want. |
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