Has anyone used any of the online credit report survices? I'm looking for some input, since I need to check on a few disputed bad marks on my credit.

 

Not worth it. Equifax will give you a free credit report directly if you just call them up and tell them you think something is suspicious. I think the rule is still once per year and more often if you've been denied credit....

https://www.econsumer.equifax.com/co..._faqs#fourteen

Don't support the spammers...

 

Thanks for the heads-up, guys. I guess I'll get my reports the old-fashoned way.

 

There's a company you probably haven't heard of that you could try. I use them and they're awesome. They're called Privacy Guard. They're a dedicated credit monitoring service, and when you sign up you get your credit reports from all three reporting agencies. Once you're hooked in with them, they monitor your credit reports for you and email you a monthly or every other month (I forget) notification if your report changes (this includes: new account, closed account, derogatory remarks). The service is $9.99 a month.

 

Every time they check your rating it has a negative impact so wouldn't monthly monitoring be bad?

 

I haven't read the FAQs on it, but brokers can tell where inquiries come from just by looking at your report. And I'm not even sure it shows up as an inquiry. They don't have anything listed in their FAQ page regarding this so I emailed them. I'll post the response when I get it.

Regardless, a few inquiries > id theft.

 

Self reporting does not count as an inquiry.