March 5, 2009
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Wilderness to Free Credit Report, Pt.1
Try again in 4 months.Back in November when my credit card score (FICO) fell from 819 to 691, I thought it a perfect time to find out why. I went to great lengths to get past the hurdles for my free credit card report and, ultimately failed. It's all chronicled in the news article entitled "Journey to Free Credit Report". The reason for my failure was lack of preparation. After overcoming the initial hurdles like, who I was, I was confronted with the steep climb. I soon learned that TransUnion had amassed a collection of 32 credit card accounts I had used in the past and they expected me to have memorized all those card numbers for a three-tiered pop quiz.
The first level was a random list of a dozen issuers from the 32-credit card list where, I could pick three and fill in the card numbers. I managed to pass that quiz. The next level gave a list of seven. Passed that one too. The third list had five more. I'd had eight credit cards with BofA in the past and three of them were on that list. With only three attempts to get all three of them I was left to guess which three they were asking for. I failed that one and was locked out from any more attempts. After four months went by, I tried once more and was still locked out. My only resort now was to call TransUnion to find out what I could do.
Here's how that all unfolded:
1) Goto //www.annualcreditreport.com: I started by calling up the initial starting point.
2) TransUnion icon: When I fist got to the site, I was a little confused by the screen. Icons for each of the three credit card reporting bureaus (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) were displayed on the lower-left quadrant of the screen. Since I already knew I wanted TransUnion, I chose that icon. I was taken to TransUnion's main page where the only choices wanted money.