Creditors and potential creditors (including credit card issuers and car loan lenders). These people and businesses can review your report when you apply for credit or to monitor your credit once they have given you a loan or credit.
No, not just anyone can look at your credit report. To access your report, an organization must have what's called "permissible purpose."
The only way you can legally pull someone else's credit report is if you have what's referred to as Permissible Purpose. Permissible Purpose is a term straight from the Fair Credit Reporting Act and it defines the conditions under which a credit reporting agency may furnish a credit report.
You can get a free copy of your credit report by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com. Consumers can obtain one free copy of their credit report every 12 months from each of the three major credit bureaus.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) has a strict limit on who can check your credit and under what circumstance. The law regulates credit reporting and ensures that only business entities with a specific, legitimate purpose, and not members of the general public, can check your credit without written permission.
If you want to freeze your credit, you need to do it at each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax (1-800-349-9960), TransUnion (1-888-909-8872) and Experian (1-888-397-3742). If you request a freeze, be sure to store the passwords you'll need to thaw your credit in a safe place.
The average person is not privy to your credit information. For the most part, your score and report remain confidential, and only select parties and companies can see it. Here's who can access your credit report, who can't, and why.
Lenders typically require a Social Security number when you apply for a credit account. However, if you opened an account without an SSN and the lender reports its accounts to Experian, the account should still appear on your credit report, helping you establish credit.
Thus, if you owe money to a debt collector, the debt collector has the legal right to pull and review your credit report. Debt collectors have a variety of reasons for wanting access to your credit reports. One reason a debt collector might conduct a credit inquiry is if the company cannot locate you.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows the lender or broker to share the report they receive with their customer. However, if you choose to do so, you must be prepared to explain the report, and the information in it, to your customer.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, debts can appear on your credit report generally for seven years and in a few cases, longer than that. Under state laws, if you are sued about a debt, and the debt is too old, you may have a defense to the lawsuit.
While the number of credit checks for a mortgage can vary depending on the situation, most lenders will check your credit up to three times during the application process.
If you believe someone is using your Social Security number to work, get your tax refund, or other abuses involving taxes, contact the IRS online or call 1-800-908-4490. You can order free credit reports annually from the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion).
Dear BWR, While an incorrect Social Security number (SSN) on your report could be a sign of fraud, usually it is simply the result of a typographical error or a misread credit application form. To help protect you from identity theft, Experian does not list your actual SSN on your personal credit report.
It is estimated that over 1% of people in America have their credit reports combined or merged with another person. Having a 2nd social security number or a wrong social security number is evidence that this is exactly what you are experiencing. Many times it may be your brother or sister's accounts.
You may be able to clear up the error by double-checking with your creditors and making sure they have your correct name and Social Security number. If asking a creditor to update inaccurate personal information doesn't work, you can also file a dispute with the credit bureau to correct inaccurate personal information.
Perhaps the biggest downside to credit freezes is that all of the hassle might not stop identity thieves. While a freeze will most likely prevent them from opening new accounts in your name, it cannot prevent fraud on your existing accounts.
A credit freeze can help prevent identity thieves from opening new accounts in your name, but it does nothing to keep them from committing fraud with your existing accounts. That means fraudsters might make charges on a payment card in your wallet.
Credit freezes and credit locks both restrict access to your credit reports. But credit freezes are free, while credit locks may be offered as part of expanded paid services.
It's surprisingly easy for hackers and criminals to get your Social Security number. This usually happens either by physically getting the information or through a security breach of some kind online.
How might someone steal your number? Identity thieves get your personal information by: Stealing wallets, purses, and your mail (bank and credit card statements, pre-approved credit offers, new checks, and tax information).
Legally, hard inquiries cannot occur without your permission.
If you spot a hard credit inquiry on your credit report and it's legitimate (i.e., you knew you were applying for credit), there's nothing you can do to remove it besides wait. It won't impact your score after 12 months and will fall off your credit report after two years.
In California, the statute of limitations for consumer debt is four years. This means a creditor can't prevail in court after four years have passed, making the debt essentially uncollectable.