Do You Need a Free Credit Report? - By: John Rasor

You're not thinking of making any major purchases in the near future, so do you really need to get your free credit report? Can't you just wait until you're ready to buy a house or a car?

Yes you do need that free credit report, and no, you really can't wait. There's too much at stake.

In 2008 over 10 million people were victims of identity theft. And far too many of them had no idea that they'd been victimized until they tried to obtain credit - or until they got a "cranky" letter from the IRS asking why they had failed to report all of their income.

By then, the identity thief had done enough damage that some of them still don't have it all sorted out and corrected.

Can you imagine how you'd feel if you'd been paying all your bills on time and a loan officer told you that you couldn't qualify for a home loan because of a half dozen unpaid credit cards on your credit report?

Or what a panic you'd be in if the IRS implied that you had been trying to evade your taxes by not reporting all of your income?

These things are happening to people all over the U.S. right now. In fact, as the economy worsens, identity theft is going up.

Your only real defense is to get your free credit report and then put a "watch" service on it - so that any time someone makes a change to your report, you'll be notified.

You'll know immediately when someone attempts to use your name - either to gain new credit or to get a job or rent a house - or even to set up cell phone service. And when you know immediately, you can take the appropriate steps to nip it in the bud.

The second reason why you need your free credit report is to look for errors. Depending upon which expert you listen to, between 25% and 70% of all credit reports contain errors. This isn't surprising considering that data entry people need to get a certain amount done each day.

Volume becomes more important than accuracy, and all it takes to put information on the wrong credit report is hitting a 7 when you aimed for an 8 in a Social Security number. The same kind of mistake can change your $10,000 credit limit to $1,000.

So get your free credit report today - your future happiness may depend on it.

About the Author

http://www.creditscorecowboy.com is the #1 source on the planet for a free credit report, identity theft software and a blog with a wealth of information writtten by lending professionals that know about credit and what determines ones creditworthiness.

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