Avoiding Annual Credit Report Scams

Getting annual credit report is an important step in protecting your financial health. Your credit report is what credit card companies and other lenders use to determine if you are a good risk. It may also reveal fraudulent activity such as identity theft. The irony is that getting a credit report can itself expose you to the risk of identity theft. Here is how to order a credit report safely and securely.
First, know your rights. You have the right to a free credit report from each of the three large American credit reporting companies every 12 months. (You do not need to order all three reports at once, so experts recommend that you order from a different company every four months.) There is a site run jointly by the three major credit reporting companies to streamline the process of getting your free reports: annualcreditreport.com. Ordering an annual credit report from this site is completely free, with no strings attached, and will not put you in danger of identity theft.
Second, make sure you are ordering from the right source. There are dozens of other "free report" sites online, some of them with names similar to annualcreditreport.com or cloaked behind links that make it look as though you have gone to annualcreditreport.com. Do not be fooled by them. These are scam sites set up to harvest your personal information or to force you to buy other products before you can get your "free" report. In order to be sure you have reached the real annualcreditreport.com, type the name directly into the address bar on your browser and double check to make certain you typed it in correctly.
Third, safeguard your information. You will need to give private information in order to get your free annual credit report, so make sure no one can read over your shoulder, and use a private computer so you do not need to worry about having your information stored in the cache. If you cannot use your own computer, then before you order a report, examine the computer to be sure you have the option of emptying the browser cache when you finish, and check to make sure the computer is clean of snooper viruses and key logger programs.
If you follow these directions, you will be able to order an annual credit report without being asked to shell out for unrelated services and without putting your identity at risk. Note on your calendar when you will be able to order the next free credit report from each credit reporting agency. You have made an important step toward personal, as well as financial, safety.

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Find more information related to free credit score, click www.lendingtree.com/credit-resources/free-credit-report.

Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com

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