How I Pulled My Credit Report & What I Found

Posted by Sofia Ballow | Posted in Credit Repair | Posted on 04-10-2010

Here’s an interesting number: Almost 80% of credit reports have mistakes on them. Checking your credit report every year will help you make sure that your credit is mistake free. I use to not check my report because I just assumed that it would be right. We all know what happens when you assume. Needless to say, I could not have been more wrong.

Curiosity Helped This Cat

When I heard about AnnualCreditReport.com a few years back I decided to get my credit report just to be curious. AnnualCreditReport.com is a site set up by the three major credit reporting agencies. It’s a place to get a free credit report from each of those agencies once a year, no strings attached.

I went to that site and found that it was really simple to use. I just picked my state and then it brought me to a page to fill out all of my information. I did have to give my social which made me a little wary, but I did some research and found that it was a secure site which made me relax. After I filled it out, I selected that I wanted my report from all three agencies. It’s recommended that you do that in case one has a mistake on it that the others don’t. Once you select the agencies you want, it takes you to their site one at a time. What I love is that it actually processes your information automatically so you don’t have to re-enter it for every site and it takes you straight to check out.

What!!!

So after a couple of more mouse clicks I was at my first credit report. It was really organized well so I could take in all of the information very easily. It had everything on there that I expected so no surprises there. I then went to the second agency and bam! Allegedly I had a credit card that was charged off for about $2,000 from about three years before. Well I wasn’t even 18 three years before, so I knew that was bogus.

Mystery Solved

I asked my mom about it and apparently I was an authorized user on one of her cards. It had been hurting my credit score this whole time and I never knew. I had nothing to do with that card so I clicked on the dispute button next to that entry. It was actually a very easy process thankfully. I just explained that I wasn’t of age and that it was my mother’s card. They got back to me within a couple of weeks and said they cleared it off. After that I checked the third agency and that was all clear! That just reinforced making sure to check all three reports.

So lesson learned. Check your credit report because you never know when you could have a mistake on it like I did. Just as a side note, AnnualCreditReport.com only gives you a free credit report. If you want your credit score you will have to purchase it. So, go check out your credit report!

About the Author – Kevin Foster

Our guest blogger, Kevin Foster of Financially Poor writes about his passion, personal finance. He blogs frequently on a variety of topics, in the hopes of helping people take charge of their financial life. The opinions, findings and suggestions expressed here belong to the sole author and do not necessarily reflect the views of

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