Check a Credit Report Government Option - Any Governmental Alternative?

One of the benefits that came about due to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was the ability and right of all consumers to see their credit report once a year for free. All agencies that collect and sell certain information about consumers must allow this, and it cannot affect the score assigned to these consumers. This is as opposed to all other requests for information, each of which reduces a credit score by a small amount.

Today, the government has set up a website at which consumers can access this information from all three major bureaus simultaneously. This website, Annual Credit Report, is the authority that most people use when they wish to check up on their information. However, while it gives a decent amount of information, the government option is definitely not the best option. An excellent alternative, which gives far more information than the government options, is such sites as freecreditreport.com and creditreport.com.

These options are superior to using the government-sponsored website for a number of reasons. First, one can see his or her score in addition to the report itself. While there is cost involved, seeing the report alone does not tell somebody nearly enough to know what to expect when he or she takes out a loan. Unfortunately, the FCRA does not entitle a person to see his or her score for free, so a small fee is required. Most such sites charge between 5 and 25 dollars a month, and allow one to see his or her report once a month or more often.

Furthermore, these sites offer an excellent layer of protection from identity theft. Just seeing one's credit once a year is not enough. Identity theft can happen at any time, and one needs to stay on top of his or her accounts to ensure that it is not happening. The only way to do that is to see one's information. However, when the government passed FCRA, they were expecting people to use the free report to check for errors. It was never expected that identity theft would become a big enough concern that people would use the report to watch for that. Therefore, today one needs to pay. But the benefits fainted from a strong preventative measure against identity theft far outweigh the costs. It is worth it to sign up at the above sites just for that and many other benefits too.