Online credit report and credit monitoring to prevent identity theft.

Get an online credit report copy and benefit from a credit monitoring service to prevent identity theft.

Does your mailbox have a padlock? Do you shred all letters before you toss them into the trash? Most people don't, and identity thieves take advantage of this. A thief could snatch mail from your box or sift through your trash to get all the information necessary to steal your identity.

Have you been rejected for credit or been given credit but at a higher interest rate? A credit reporting agency or other source could have placed errors on your credit report. Or perhaps someone stole your identity.

How soon will you find out without a credit report?

It's one thing to have bad credit, but it is another to have errors on your credit report through no fault of your own. The result, however, is the same-- unless you correct it.

Did you know that you pay a higher interest rate on you car and mortgage with questionable credit? Were you aware that insurance companies can turn you down or put you in a higher risk category with higher premiums if they consider you a bad credit risk? Consider this: More employers now run credit checks for potential job selection and/or promotions than ever before in our history. Can you really afford to loose your next promotion because of a credit report error?

Who can accesses your credit report?

• Landlords, utility companies, phone companies.

• Hospitals, doctors, dentists, insurance companies.

• Credit unions, finance companies, banks.

• Retailers, department stores, credit card companies.

• Auto dealers, mortgagers.

• Investigators, lawyers, courts.

• Anyone who can offer just cause and/or has access as a member of a credit report agency.

Common credit report myths

• Paying off debts immediately makes a bad credit report become good. Truth: A credit report is a history of your payments, not just a snapshot of the present.

• No one can see your credit report without your permission. Truth: Unless it's for employment purposes, your signature or consent is not required for someone to view your report.

• Credit counseling always damages a credit score. Truth: Attending a credit counselor's debt management program is not considered negative in the scoring models.

• Canceling credit cards boosts credit report scores. Truth: Open accounts indicate available, potential debt. Most creditors want to see at least two or three pieces of active credit to prove you can responsibly manage debt.

• Too many inquiries harm credit report scores. Truth: Credit reporting agencies can detect shopping for a loan or card, and won't penalize you for this.

• Checking your own credit report harms the score. Truth: Ordering your own credit report does not harm your score.

• FICO scores are locked in for six months. Truth: Fair Isaac and Company's models are dynamic, meaning they change as soon as data on the credit report changes.

• You don't need to check your credit report if you pay bills on time. Truth: When the Consumer Federation of America and the National Credit Reporting Association analyzed credit scores in the summer of 2002, they discovered that 78 percent of the files were missing a revolving account in good standing, while 33 percent of files lacked a mortgage account that had never been late. Twenty-nine percent contained conflicting information on how many times the consumer had been 60 days late on payments.

• All credit reports are the same. Truth: Wrong. These days most creditors across the country do report their information to all three major agencies: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian.

• A divorce decree automatically severs joint accounts. Truth: A divorce decree may divide credit card, auto and house payments, but it doesn't re-write the original credit terms.

• Bad news comes off in seven years. Truth: Some of it does. Chapter 13 (reorganization of debt) disappears seven years from the filing date. But if you filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy (exoneration of all debt), the window is 10 years from the filing date.

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