Here’s a fun picture I found on credit freeze. You know, the situation where your credit on a particular credit card is frozen due to identity theft? Luckily, when you call in to verify everything, the freeze if lifted and you are able to transact again! This picture says it all…
Originally uploaded by paalia
There’s a lot of confusion about this. While it should be obvious to most people by now that the law gives us free access to our credit reports on once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus, not everyone knows about it much less know how to get it exactly!
It’s really quite easy. To see your free credit reports (all three of them) with no strings attached, simply go to www.annualcreditreport.com and follow the simple directions and within a few minutes, you will have all three credit reports on your computer! Or for those of you who want hard copies, the website will tell you how to get it too.
You probably know by know that having a good FICO score (derived from your credit reports) can determine how low or high of interest rates you will get when you take out a loan. But just how bad is a bad FICO score? And how much can it affect you?
According to the Web site myFICO.com the breakdown of the general population’s FICO scores is as follows:
* 20 percent below 620
* 20 percent between 620 and 690
* 20 percent between 690 and 745
* 20 percent between 745 and 780
* 20 percent above 780
Most people today know that the US government has worked out a deal with the three major credit bureaus of America to each provide an annual credit report for every person with a legitimate social security number.
Originally uploaded by Alec Peden
This is a great thing for everyone. For one, we can all view our credit reports once a year to make sure everything on it is accurate and that there are no credit card and other loans there that we did not authorize. And if we do find something odd on these reports, we can take appropriate actions.