Friday, February 7, 2014

Free Credit Report

Every person is allowed one free credit report per year.  Get yours at the official site at www.annualcreditreport.com.  Be careful of similar sites.  They want to charge you!  There are 3 national credit agencies (Transunion, Equifax, TRW) and each is required to offer you one free report per year...One technique is to pull just one of the 3 now, saving your others to spread throughout the year.  This way you can keep tabs on your credit over time w/out paying a service.  And don't worry, pulling your own credit report does not ding your score like a real inquiry for credit does.
  
You won't get your credit score for free though.  Even on the free site they are only required to show you your credit report.  You get to pay extra to see your score.  Credit scores are a whole other animal and I will save that for another blog post but suffice it to say they are critical to good financial health and in getting the lowest interest rate available from mortgages to credit cards.  You can pay extra for your score(s) at annualcreditreport.com or there are commercial sites that offer your credit score, typically in addition to credit monitoring.  I don't normally advocate paying for something you can get for free and yet I myself subscribe to MyFico.com. The site has some useful tips and a free or discounted trial if you find yourself curious.  Use it if you are planning a major purchase, like a home, to make sure you're on track to get the best rate possible.


If you have a real issue w/your credit or have a client that is "credit challenged" you might even consider a commercial site to help repair it.  Again, I tread even more carefully here because most credit repair companies are dubious at best and outright crooks at worst.  Here's one I came across that appears reputable Credit West Consultants.  They send us useful email tips on credit repair and score improvement in general.  Most of it is common sense but I've learned some neat tricks from them.  

Bottom line:  Review your credit report at least annually and keep your score as high as possible to keep your interest rates as low as possible.



Eric Lundberg - NMLS #261588
President, Chinook Mortgage Ltd - NMLS #261588
EugeneOR.
541.302.3210
www.ChinookMtg.com

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