Why You Need To Pull Your Credit Reports Now

We often talk about credit reports and it seems like a good idea to do.

Someday.

Here’s why you should do it NOW.

You simply have no idea what is on your credit reports (good or bad) until you look at them.

Sometimes folks say “My reports are terrible so I don’t want to look at them.” I don’t know — maybe or maybe not. You need to look at them.

Other times, folks say “My reports are so awesome — I’ve never been late — I always have a great credit score.  I don’t need to look at the reports.”

Again, I don’t know — maybe or maybe not. Even if you have never been late, could the reports have false information? Debt collectors? Identity theft? Could you file be mixed up with another person with a similar name?

The majority of all credit reports have errors so the odds are your reports have errors.  Maybe minor.  Maybe major.

You need to look at them to figure this out.

We should figure this out BEFORE we need our credit — before we need to apply for a home loan, get security clearance, etc.

The problem is similar to our health.  If we say “I’ll figure out how to get healthy once I’m having a heart attack” — well . . . this might be a little bit late.

Let’s get healthy now.

Physically and financially with our credit reports.

You can pull them for free from Annual Credit Report with no credit card, no monthly membership bill.  Just flat out free with no strings every twelve months.

It’s a great deal — so take advantage of it.  And you can get them for free from the website by doing it online or by phone or by mail — all the contact information is on the website.

If you need to buy your credit reports — go to Equifax, Experian, and Transunion directly — don’t buy a 3 in 1 report. Get the most accurate info from each bureau.  I had a professor who once said: “If you are going to quote scripture, do it from the Bible, not a commentary.”

His point was to go directly to the source so I encourage you to do this with your credit reports — go directly to the source:

• Get Equifax data from Equifax
• Get Experian data from Experian
• Get Transunion data from Transunion

If you have questions and you live in Alabama give us a call at 205-879-2447. You can also contact us through our website and we will get right back with you.

-John G. Watts
Watts & Herring, LLC
We represent consumers from all parts of Alabama