Get a free credit report every four months!

We all know how important credit is to our lives and even our livelihoods. The lack of credit has significant adverse effects when a business can't get a loan to finance ongoing business operations. In our personal lives, we can often do without credit until we need to buy something big, like a car or a house.

Because credit is important to us, our credit scores are equally important. Those credit scores come from three credit reporting agencies:

• Equifax
• Experian
• TransUnion

No one really knows exactly how they manufacture those credit scores, kind of like the ActiveRain points system probably. We do know that certain things can affect those scores significantly:

• Having too many credit cards -- I had a Client turned down for a home loan because she had 51 credit cards, even though the amount of credit she was carrying was a mere 4% of her available credit.
• Too much available credit -- This was also a reason listed for the previous Client's denial.
• Too much debt; balances too high -- This results from maxing out your credit cards.
• Too much recent activity -- This often results from going on an extended vacation but can also result from illegal activity from a stolen credit card or credit card information, as well as from identify theft.

It's important that you monitor your credit, credit scores, and your credit reports from the three reporting agencies. Federal law recognizes this importance by allowing you to get a free credit report every twelve months from each of the three credit reporting agencies.

Many people will tell you that you can get a free credit report annually, but it's important to understand that there is a difference between "annually" and "every twelve months." Most people consider "annual" to be a calendar year from January through December, so they wrongly believe that if they got three free credit reports in September 2009, they can get three more free ones in March 2010. That's not the way it works.

Rather, you're entitled to those free credit reports "every twelve months," so if you got them in September 2009, you'll have to wait until September 2010 before you're eligible to get them again.

However, there's a better way to use your three credit reports. I recommend checking your credit score every four months since you can do it free. Here's how:

Since you are entitled to one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three credit reporting agencies, let's start today, September 14, 2009, and get the first one from Experian.

If you do that, here are the dates to get your other free credit reports:

• January 14, 2010 - free credit report from Equifax
• May 14, 2010 - free credit report from TransUnion
• September 14, 2010 - free credit report from Experian
• January 14, 2011 - free credit report from Equifax
• May 14, 2011 - free credit report from TransUnion

And so on.

The information is 99% the same on all the credit reports with the only differences being format, wording, and scoring, so you can monitor your credit better by using this system.

I would like to thank the kind lady at Washington Mutual's credit department several years ago for pointing this out to me when we were having credit problems due to identity theft. Unfortunately, Washington Mutual was a victim of the upheaval in the banking industry and is now Chase, a bank that I don't particularly like.

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Jim Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award Mission Valley
California DRE License #01458572
619-729-5701
jimfrimmer@century21award.com

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Buy your own piece of paradise in San Diego County.

I can help you find the best just the right home or just the right buyers
to meet your real estate needs, wants, and goals.

I'm available 24/7, so feel free to contact me by phone or email.

*****

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