Free Personal Credit Report - a simple search on Google yields Millions of search results. Needless to say, the desire to view one's own credit report at no cost is in immense demand. This should be no surprise as almost anything you want to do financially, whether personally or in business, revolves around the single factor centered on credit ratings. If you have a good credit score, you can get the best of the loans at the best of the interest rates. If you don't, you simply can't progress with attempting to acquire any loan with decent terms.
A Credit Report is THE document that captures everything pertaining to what determines whether you can qualify for a good loan. It is of utmost importance that you closely monitor what goes in the report, amend any incorrect items, work towards improving the not-so-good factors, and of-course watch it closely like a hawk to ensure nothing gets in there that is fraud.
With recent regulations, you, as a US Consumer, are entitled to one free credit report each year at AnnualCreditReport. You should certainly avail of this no cost opportunity. But often times, this is insufficient, as once a year, is well, once in 365 days. What do you do at other times? How do you ensure you are tracking your report and how do you ensure nothing wrought with fraud gets in there? This is where these 60 Million search results broadly fit in.
More clearly, there are various agencies that offer Credit Monitoring. These go by various names - Credit Analysis, Credit Diagnosis etc. These are monthly subscription based services that offer to monitor your credit report to ensure nothing unusual surfaces. Additionally, some of these services can also help you with repairing damaged credit items. The monthly costs for these vary, but are generally in the range of $15 - $30 per month.
The firms that offer these Credit Monitoring services often offer free credit reports to entice you as a consumer to try and subscribe to the credit monitoring service. And this is often what is never understood clearly. Consumers, in a hurry, to get a free credit report, do not often read the terms and conditions, and subscribe to what is presented to them. And before they know it, they are locked in a monthly subscription offering and it is only after some lapse of time do they realize this, and then, justifiably, get upset. The credit monitoring firms, to their support, try to argue that consumers signed up to the trial (and subsequent subscription) of their services in exchange for their report, and rightfully so, are justified in having charged consumers. Sometimes, these lead to angry communication and gets turned into ugly reports, and gets labeled as scams. To the consumers support, not all firms disclose these terms and conditions visibly - they are buried deep in and often are tiny footprints that are easy to miss.
So, what do you do? If you are interested in a free credit report, you do have reliable sources to get one from. But be aware of the terms and conditions, and so long as you are aware of them and follow through with canceling any subscription trials if you intend not to continue benefiting from the value they present, you are fine.
