December 24,2008
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What Are They Saying About You?, Pt.4 –
– What's behind door #3?Once inside the site you may choose from which bureau you wish a report. I stated ‘fairly easy' a little while ago, but this not always the case. Because your vital information is so sensitive (and probably because the report is free), you'll be asked some pretty trying security questions. The first ones may be easy but, like with TransUnion (who seem to be the most-used), you'll be shown a series of credit card account names that you've once held in three levels. ‘Level 1' may give you eight choices and ask you to enter the credit card numbers of any three from the list. You're allowed only three mistakes. If you pass ‘Level 1', you graduate to ‘Level 2'. Here, you'll be given a list of six credit cards you've once been associated with. The three you already got will not be on the list. If you can get through three of those without three mistakes, you're moved up to ‘Level 3'. You guessed it...'Level 3' only provides a list of only four cards and you have to guess three. None of the ones you've already answered will be on the list. The problem is, if you happen to have 9 accounts with Bank of America (as I do) and the list simply states "Bank of America account", you only get three chances to guess which one of those nine accounts they're looking for. If you fail, you fall through the trap door and have to call in by phone and wait up to 15 days for your freebee to arrive.
Most people don't have as 20 credit card accounts, as I do, so it should be ‘fairly easy' for you. Lastly, since credit reports are generally updated every quarter, you can maximize your effect by only ordering the freebee from one of the bureaus in the middle of each quarter. It won't cover the whole year but, nine months should be long enough to resolve most problems. Besides, you'll be so sick of looking at credit reports by than that you may stop reading these articles. Please don't.