Watch Your Credit Report - For Free!

If you’re thinking about taking advantage of the current housing market by buying a home or refinancing an existing one, but wonder if your credit score will enable you to do so and snag the lowest possible rate, there is a forthcoming free service that you may want to take advantage of.

The resulting terms of a recent class-action lawsuit will allow up to nine months of daily monitoring of one’s credit file as well as unrestricted access to your credit report and your credit score.  To qualify for eligibility, you must have had some sort of credit account open between January 1, 1987 and  May 28, 2008.  This can include any credit card, auto or student loans, and mortgages.  The deadline to file is September 24, 2008.

To register, simply log onto www.listclassaction.com or call the toll-free number, 866-416-3470.

The information that you’ll have access to is limited to what’s kept on file with TransUnion, the defendant in the class action.  The litigation against TU dates back to 1998, when plaintiffs accused the company of selling personal information to marketers in violation of federal law.  The other two credit repositories - Equifax and Experian - are not affected by this action and thus the information kept by those companies is not included.

Nonetheless, this is still a good place for a potential new borrower to begin, especially is there is some reason to believe that there might be some negative or erroneous information contained in the report.  By tackling the issues sooner rather than later, you can get yourself in position to possibly raise your score and qualify you for a more preferred interest rate.

It’s still important, however, to also know your credit scores from the other two repositories.  Mortgage lenders will typically use a borrower’s middle score, and disregard the high and low scores on an applicant’s report.  Thus, if your TransUnion score happens to be the highest score relative to the other two, it won’t count anyway, but it’s still useful information to have on hand.  And obtaining it is free, so long as you meet the eligibility criteria mentioned above.

 

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