Posts Tagged ‘identity theft’
How To Get Your Credit Report Free
Your Credit Report- Why You really Need To Obtain It
Many New Zealanders aren’t aware they are entitled to get their credit report free of charge with in ten working days. In fact a large majority have never seen their credit report at all.
Under the Credit Reporting Privacy Code you have the right to request any information from a credit reporter for no charge unless you requested it be provided to you within a period of five working days. If that is the case they can charge a reasonable fee. Obtaining your Credit Report is a relatively easy to do exercise, you can in-fact download the form online and send it in via mail. Credit report providers under law must take steps to ensure your identity is who you say you are before providing the report but this can be as simple as faxing in a copy of your drivers license or passport and answering a few questions over the phone.
Even your local bank or credit union must disclose any information they hold about your credit record if you request it. In New Zealand there are also two companies you can contact to obtain your copy of your report, Baycorp and EC Group.
Why obtaining your report is vitally important not only may you discover incorrect details and request these be fixed. You may have some adverse history your not aware of that causes credit providers to view you as a higher risk and charge you higher Interest rates than they would others.
It also important to note that identity theft is a commonplace occurrence these days and the only way you may get advance warning of someone using your details to gain or attempt to gain credit is via your report.
Once you have your report you can see any queries raised and collate these with your own financial records to see if you actually did request the credit or not. Taking this precautionary step is a far better option than finding out someone else has opened a line or several lines of credit under your name and your now stuck with the payments and a damaged credit rating.
If any organization refuses to provide you with your credit records you can seek enforcement and even prosecution the first step would be to visit the Privacy Commissioners website for more details.
