January 16,2008
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Surviving the CC Earthquake, Pt.2 –
– Download your free Credit Reports.Recall that your credit card score is derived from your credit report. To order your free credit report's, you can either call on the phone at (877) 322-8228 and request a free written copy from any of the three. Expect 15 days for delivery, that way. Perhaps a more quick and convenient method is by going on-line. Simply call up www.annualcreditreport.com from your browser and select between the three major bureaus: TransUnion; Experian or; Equifax. Whichever one you choose will take you to that particular bureau's web site, which will have it's own gauntlet for you to clear (to prove it's really you, I guess). You will be grilled with questions on your credit card data (both past and present) like providing the full 16-digit account number. You will not be provided any digits to match up, only a list of the names of the lending institutions. But, this is the best approach as, the many other parasitic sites try to trick you into buying something just to deliver your ‘free' report. Don't be fooled. Make sure to specify you're after the freebee and also specify it's for credit cards.
To be on the safe side once you get to the ‘www.annualcreditreport.com' site, check that you have a secure connection before entering any of your vital credit card data. Right away, you should find a ‘locked padlock' icon at the top of your browser, to the right of the Address Bar. If you click on it, you can get verification that you really are where you want to be. The dropdown should say something like "VeriSign Class 3 Public Primary CA has identified this site as [‘the name you typed in']". You can also check much deeper by simply choosing the ‘View certificates' hyperlink at the bottom of the dropdown. This ensures that no one else can eavesdrop as you enter your vital credit card data.