Have you requested your CLUE report lately? It’s one of several specialty reports you should be reviewing annually and today I requested mine.

CLUE stands for Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange and your CLUE report details your seven year claims history with your insurance company. You have two CLUE reports, both of which come from ChoicePoint:

• CLUE Personal Property Report: This report covers personal property loss history and inquiry history. This will include all insurance claims you’ve made in the last seven years that aren’t auto-related.
• CLUE Auto Report: This report covers auto loss history and inquiry history.

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Reader Christine recently left a comment on the What is a good credit score? post in which she asked how she could get unauthorized hard inquiries removed. For her particular case, it’s likely that she agreed to the hard inquiries when she “clicked on a link on some website that I do not even remember now and got phone calls from about 5 lenders. I had very enlightening conversations but decided not to apply.”

Whether you apply for a loan or not, when you request quotes you will have agreed to the lenders pulling your credit report. They can’t give you a rate quote without knowing your credit score and credit history. Reputable companies won’t pull your credit without your permission because it’s illegal (it violates this: Fair Credit Reporting Act, Section 1681b(c): Transactions Not Initiated by Consumer).

But there are cases where someone could make an unauthorized hard inquiry and the solution is to send a “remove inquiry letter” to the credit reporting agencies.

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The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACTA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) give you the right to review your credit reports every twelve months. Most people are aware of the three credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) but did you know that the rule applies to all consumer reporting agencies, which includes several other types of reporting systems.

One of those systems is ChexSystems. ChexSystems is a network of financial institutions that contribute “mishandled checking and savings account” information. This includes everything from how many checks you’ve ordered, if you’ve had any bounced checks, the number of financial institution inquiries, to instances of identity theft and fraud. Whereas your credit report discusses only loan-related items and your credit score focuses on the probability you’ll default on a loan, a ChexSystems report “fills in the blanks” on how you’d be as a customer of a bank.

You can request your ChexSystems Consumer Report here.

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This morning, I wrote about the importance of regularly checking your credit report. The hardest part about the whole process is remembering to request a report every four months!

So I decided to leverage the power of the Internet to create a mailing list that will remind you every 122 days (365 days divided by 3) to go to AnnualCreditReport.com to request your report. The first email will remind you to request your Equifax credit report today. In 122 days you’ll get a reminder to request your Experian credit report. In another 122 days you’ll get a reminder to request your TransUnion credit report. Then in another 121 (to account for the extra day), you’ll get a reminder for Equifax again. You can sign up using this short form here:
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This week I had the great pleasure of being on ABC News’ Money Matter television program. For nearly seven minutes of LIVE television, I discussed credit reports with host Tanya Rivero. We discussed how often I check my credit reports, the different types of credit inquiries, what’s in your credit report, and how damaging late payments can be on your credit worthiness and credit score.

Click here to watch!

Being on live television was certainly a treat, a bit nerve-wracking, but I think I did alright for my first foray into live television right?

Right?

Please let me know what you think!

Most people are now aware that they can get a copy of their credit history from each of the three major credit bureaus every twelve months. We can thank the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) for that right (which you can exercise by going to annualcreditreport.com). What most people aren’t aware of is that the FCRA also gives you the same level access for other “specialty” reports as well. There are several companies that don’t create “credit” reports but do collect your data into what are commonly referred to as special reports. Fortunately, you are afforded the same rights to those reports as well!

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The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) mandates that consumers are allowed to review their credit report for free every 12 months. This rule covers all consumer reports, to include specialty reports like insurance and check writing. Until the FCRA mandate, you had to pay to see your report!

Initially there is a rollout period so that the three credit unions don’t get clobbered all at once but by now everyone can get a free credit report at AnnualCreditReport.com.

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