Michigan Annual Free Credit Report

FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS -
WHAT CONSUMERS SHOULD KNOW

Michigan consumers can order a free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting companies every year. Consumers can order their free annual credit reports by mail, by telephone, or online. To maximize your protection against fraudulent activity, order one report from a different company every fourth month.

ORDER YOUR FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS

• By Mail
  Complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form available online at the only truly free credit report website form is available through the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) website: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports

• By Telephone
  Call 877-322-8228 (toll free).

• Online
  www.annualcreditreport.com
  Caution: Misspelling this site or using another site with similar words will take you to a site that will try to sell you something or collect your personal information.

Why Pay For a Credit Report When You Can it Free

The annual credit report program has been actually formulated to help the consumers to stay updated, get fair treatment and fight against the identity theft. In fact, now one can call up the prominent credit agencies and ask for a free credit report. However, in order to get a free report you would need to provide your name, social security number, address and your date of birth to the bureaus.

Why To Pay For Credit Report when You Can Get Your FICO Score Free

As per the law one can get credit report for free but he needs to make payment for the credit score. Until and unless the FTC decides to provide you free FICO score you must try to find out other means which can help you to get your Fico score for free. It is actually a good idea to keep a tab on the credit score periodically in order to avoid and fraudulent activities. In order to get a free credit report you need to visit the AnnualCreditReport.com a website which is jointly operated by the 3 prominent U.S credit reporting agencies. Apart from this option there are other ways which would help you to get a free report. Check them out:

As per the law you can get a free report if:

* You are getting certain public welfare assistance.
* You think there are certain inaccuracies complimenting your report due to identity theft or fraud.
* Since you are unemployed you would definitely try to get a job in the next 60 days.

Tax Liens and Credit Reports

A tax lien showing up on your credit or against your property can be one of the most devastating credit problems you can have. The IRS does not tend to be very flexible and they will take aggressive action to make sure that they are paid in full.

A tax lien showing on your credit will create havoc for you when you try to get new credit. You will definitely not be able to get a home mortgage and it will be difficult to get credit for car loans, student loans and even credit cards. Another problem is that even after you pay the tax lien off it can show on your credit report for as long as 7 years. If you don't pay it off it can show up for 15 years or longer.

In most cases you are better off trying to pay off the tax lien rather than fight it. Sometimes you can negotiate with the IRS and settle for a lesser amount but you can rarely get away with not paying them at all. The IRS will always find you and they will be after you until you pay them off or your die in which case they will still try to get their money from your estate. That is just the way it is. We've all heard about "death and taxes".

But after you do pay off the lien, whether by paying in full or negotiating, you need to do what you can to get the negative listing removed from your credit report. If you don't it can have a negative effect for up to 7 years and longer.

In order to get a tax lien removed from you credit report you must submit a dispute to the credit reporting agencies. Make sure you submit a duplicate dispute to all of the big three, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You have the right to dispute any unfair or misleading credit because of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Learn about your rights and enforce them so that you can have peace in your financial future.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, any consumer has the right to dispute any items that are listed on the report. False and inaccurate information is often reported on credit and if you have already paid a tax lien you can ask to have the negative listing removed from your credit. You need to do this so that you can start with a clean score and move on.

The credit reporting agencies are private, non-government enterprises that are in the business to make profits. Their profits come from compiling and selling your information and they do not have a priority to make sure that the information is correct. It is your responsibility to make sure that your credit report is accurate and your information is portrayed as positively as possible.

You can make an effort to repair your credit and get negative items removed either by hiring a professional credit repair company or by doing it yourself. Either way you are responsible for making sure that your credit report and credit scores are shown in the best possible light so it is smart to take steps to repair any discrepancies on your report including tax liens.