Resources for Preventing Identity Theft

One of the best proactive ways to avoid identify theft is to obtain regular credit reports on your personal credit history. These reports provide information on all of your currently active accounts. In addition, a credit report will tell you if any inquiries have been made into your credit history of any new accounts have been opened, or attempted to be opened.

Accurately checking into your credit history requires contacting the three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. All three agencies should be checked because some institutions only report to one or two of these agencies. Therefore, the information on all three credit reports may not be exactly the same.

Acquiring credit reports from these agencies is simple. Equifax can be contacted at www.equifax.com. A credit report can also be ordered from Equifax by calling 1-800-685-1111 or by writing to P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241.

Experian’s website is www.experian.com. A credit report can be obtained by calling 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) or by writing to P.O. Box 2104, Allen, TX 75013.

To contact Trans Union, visit www.transunion.com. Or, call 1-800-916-8800 or write to P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92634-6790 to get a credit report.
 

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