How to Check Your Credit Report for Evidence of Identity Theft

Imagine finding the house of your dreams. It is the ideal place, the ideal style, even the ideal cost. Excitedly, you begin the loan application procedure. You understand this portion of the procedure will be simple as you’ve consistently paid your bills in time and just have a credit card that you pay off each month in total. To your surprise, however, your application is denied because multiple charge cards are removed in your name, maxed out, rather than paid. Your credit is ruined, and your dream house will never be a reality thanks to a identity thief.

This situation might be hypothetical, but similar situations occur to people around the nation daily. Many men and women are victims of identity theft and do not even recognize it until they have to use their charge for something, such as purchasing a car or a house. But, it doesn’t have to be like that. If you check your own credit reports yearly, you can ensure that no unauthorized actions are destroying your credit.

Now that you’re able to receive a copy of your credit report free, the only possible explanation for not monitoring it is that you can’t know how to read it and that is what we’re going to talk today.

The credit report is divided into four parts. The first component contains your private information, including name, social security number, and employer. You might want to check over this part for errors, but if you are interested in grabbing identity theft action you won’t find the evidence here.

Rather, one of your focuses should be on the next portion of the report. This is your own credit history, which comprises a list of your creditors. For each account, you’ll find the date that the account opened, the sort of account it is, the sum the accounts was originally for, the amount still owed, the amount of the payments, the status of the accounts, and your payment history. Go over each entry in this part of your document carefully. If you discover any accounts that you do not remember opening, make sure of them. If any info, such as sum owed, to the accounts doesn’t match your preferences, then make a note of this too.

Once you’ve reviewed the charge history portion, you’ll locate the public records department. Again, this likely will not be of use to you if you are tracking down identity theft evidence for the reason that it includes liens, bankruptcies, etc.. But do make certain the info in this area is true. Some lenders feel that almost 80% of credit reports do include some types of errors and because this segment is significant you would like it to be true.

The previous section that the Inquiry section should also be evaluated carefully. You see, each time you or a possible lender checks your credit file, a note of that inquiry is made in this part. Victims of identity theft are more likely to find a range of inquiries, which they cannot account for. Now keep in mind that there are two forms of inquiries reported in this part. The soft inquiries, as they’re called, refer to inquiries made by potential creditors that you did not request. For example, a credit card company might check your credit history before sending you a deal to get a gold card. The hard inquiries are the ones that you will need to be curious about because these are the inquires that you supposedly asked. When there’s anything on such report you do not agree with, then make a note of this.

Once you’ve assessed your accounts, get the credit agency and the creditors about any errors or postings you see. If you think you’ve become a victim of identity theft and will need to understand what measures to take following or if you would like to have more suggestions on how to not become a victim, then you want to read Identity Theft: A Resource Guide from PCSecurityNews.com. The ebook can be found in http://www.PCSecurityNews.com.