Guide to Legitimate Consumer Credit Report Services
Legitimate consumer credit report services are available. You just have to know what to look for when you are seeking help monitoring and obtaining your reports.
The first thing you should remember is not to pay for services you could otherwise get for free. Beyond that, you may want to keep an eye out for clues that you are dealing with a trustworthy organization.
Simple Tips
You can never be too careful when using online consumer credit report monitoring services. There are some clear-cut methods of finding out whether or not you are dealing with a website owner or operator that you can trust.
Below is a list of some of the ways you can determine the validity of a consumer credit report website:
- The owner of the site does not make you pay for document you could get for free. For instance, you are entitled to one free copy of your credit report a year from the three major credit bureaus.
- Find a way to verify the companies and/or owner of a consumer credit report monitoring/alert website. There should be some kind of official seal on the site you can use for this purpose, or you check it out with the BBB or check the ICANN Whois” directory.
- Make sure you are presented the credit score given out by FICO. Very rare are other types of credit scores even recognized by potential creditors. If it is anything other than the FICO score you are pretty much wasting your time.
- If you are unsure what your rights pertaining to receipt of a free consumer credit report, you can examine further the Fair Credit Report Act documentation. This is what will most help you determine whether or not it is necessary for you to pay to receive one.
- After verifying a website’s legitimacy, make sure there is a clear cancellation policy posted on it. This along with reading the terms of services as specified will guide you along the way.
Additional Advice
Of course you do not want to pay to receive a consumer credit report reading if you do not need to. However, maybe you already received your free copies for the year. In this case you may have to pay.
Still, you should be very careful who you turn to and who you give out your personal and financial information to. Regarding this matter, trust your instincts and DO NOT ever fill out your credit card information or even first and last name in the fields of an online registration form that is not secure!
The best way to make sure you are protected is to see if in the privacy policy whether or not it states your information is secure. Usually your best bet is if you know that the copy uses some type of encryption such as the 256 –bit or higher encryption that is used for financial transactions today.
Also, shop around before you commit to using a particular consumer credit report services. You might be surprised that there are some legitimate and helpful tools out there than you can obtain for far less month per month.
