When trying to prevent your identity from being stolen, it is recommended that you periodically review your credit report for open accounts that you did not authorize or changes to your mailing address that you did not make. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous companies may try to charge you for something that you are entitled by law to get for free.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees you access to your credit report for free from each of the nationwide credit reporting companies – Experian, Equifax and Transunion – once every 12 months; however, AnnualCreditReport.com is the only authorized source for the free annual credit report.
If you visit the FreeCreditReport.com website (or some other non-U.S.Government-approved website), you may be told that you have to pay fees or buy a monitoring service before you will get your credit report. These sites are not affiliated with the Fair Credit Reporting Act; nor are they authorized by the Federal Trade Commission.
If you’d rather, you can request the free reports by phone: 1-877-322-8228, or by mail (Annual Credit Report Request Service, PO Box 105281, Atlanta GA 30348-5281.
When reviewing your annual credit report(s), if you notice that it contains inaccurate information, you will need to write the credit reporting company a letter detailing what information you think is incorrect. Include copies (not originals) of documents that support your position. In addition to providing your complete name and address, your letter should clearly identify each item in your report you dispute. State the facts and explain why you dispute the information, and request that it be removed or corrected. You may also want to enclose a copy of your report with the items in question circled.
Credit reporting companies must investigate the items in question — usually within 30 days — unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all the relevant data you provide about the inaccuracy to the organization that provided the information. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the credit reporting company, it must investigate, review the relevant information and report the results back to the credit reporting company. If the information provider finds the disputed information is inaccurate, it must notify all three nationwide credit reporting companies so they can correct the information in your file.
When the investigation is complete, the credit reporting company must give you the results in writing and another free copy of your report if the dispute results in a change. This free report does not count as your annual free report.
Questions? Contact Mike Carr, the UNM Director of IT Security and Quality Assurance at mcarr@unm.edu.
