As credit scores became more and more important to the everyday life, it became apparent that some laws governing the credit bureaus were needed. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the law that governs the credit bureaus and protects consumers.
Credit Resources
This is the site I recommend to my clients to retrieve their credit report. Not only do you get to view your credit report, but this is a "soft inquiry" which means you will not get penalized for pulling your report. This also serves as a monitoring service which will give you email alerts whenever anything activity takes place with your credit report. Very valuable!
Federal Law mandates that your credit report be made available to you freely on an annual basis. The three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion all make your annual reports available at https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp. You are able to get one free report at a time, but keep in mind your other reports most likely will be reporting data the one you recieved do not.
This is a GREAT tool in which you will instantly increase your limits on your revolving account(s). Why is this so helpful? Well we know that when you are maxed on your revolving credit your scores will suffer. With adding either $5000 or $10,000 in a line increase, this will automatically lower your DUR (debt utilization ratio). In plain english, this can help you from being maxed out, to not being maxed out resulting in increased FICO scores.
True Value Credit is Certified as a Credit Expert by CreditCRM, the nation's leader in credit certification.