Type carefully when looking for a free credit report

Posted by Joe on December 19th, 2007

Thanks for visiting the NextAdvisor Daily blog. You may want to subscribe to our RSS feed.

A recent study by USA Today and online security company Symantec found hundreds of websites that took advantage of typos to direct consumers away from their intended destination when searching for a credit report.

These sites have domain names very similar to those of the credit bureaus. For example, freecreditrepotrt.com may accidentally be reached by consumers that are attempting to visit Experian's FreeCreditReport.com. While most of these sites likely pose little threat to consumers, it is still important to be fully aware who is operating the website you are visiting before you engage in any business dealings.

One simple way to ensure that you are on the website you intend to be is to check the privacy policy and/or contact us links which are typically at the bottom of the web page. If these items aren't present or seem suspicious, it is a good idea to move along.

We here at NextAdvisor deal directly with all the major credit report monitoring services and make sure that all links on our site are valid and directing to reputable service providers. You can click on any of the links below to visit the official websites of each of the credit report monitoring services that we have reviewed:

• Equifax
• CreditCheck Total
• FreeCreditReport.com
• Privacy Matter 123
• TrueCredit
• MyFICO
• TransUnion

• How do I cancel FreeCreditReport.com?
• AnnualCreditReport.com commercial parodies poke fun at FreeCreditReport.com
• Reader Question: How much do credit report monitoring services cost?
• FreeCreditReport.com offers 30 day trial of the cheapest three bureau credit monitoring service
• I am trying to select the best credit report monitoring service for my needs and have questions. Can I call you?