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Did you know the identity fraud is the fastest growing crime in
America? And did you know that most people don't find out that someone
has stolen their identity and credit information until it's too
late? Fortunately, credit bureaus have made credit reports available
as an early detection of identity theft. They've built in free credit
reports whenever you want to check them into what they call, credit
monitoring services. This service is convenient because it alerts
you as soon as someone has applied for credit in your name, so that
you can stay on top of your financial health.
Getting a free credit report
Purchasing an online credit
report is easy. Getting it for free gets a little tricky. Here's
what you have to do. There are many websites that say they offer
a free credit report, but then they ask you to enter a credit card.
If something is truly free, they usually do not ask for a credit
card number. If you read the fine print, you may see that they are
also signing you up for their credit monitoring program as well.
They usually give you an introductory time period (often 30 days),
then start charging you to continue the service. In order for you
to get a truly free credit report out of these companies, you have
to cancel your monitoring service during your introductory period.
We've outlined the best monitoring products available.
Equifax's Credit Monitoring Product - Credit
Watch
Experian's Credit Monitoring Product - Credit
Manager
TransUnion's Credit Monitoring Product - Free
Credit Profile
Of course, the best way to get early detection of identity theft
is to just keep the monitoring product instead of getting a free
credit report out of it. It's a small price to pay to prevent a
crime that could take years to recover from (if ever) and could
cause irreparable damages.
Purchasing a credit report
If getting a free credit report is too much of a hassle for you,
consider just purchasing it. It is recommended that you check all
three credit report at the same time, since Experian, Equifax and
TransUnion don't always carry the same information on you, which
means the reports are likely be different for each of the credit
bureaus.
- Equifax Credit Report - visit the
official Equifax website.
- Experian Credit Report - visit Experian's consumer website,
Free Credit Report.
- TransUnion Credit Report - visit TransUnion's consumer website,
TrueCredit.
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