credit | Financial Crooks

Back in November I listed some of the financial chores to consider completing by year end. Of course, I forgot one. You can check your credit file annually for free; if you’re like me, you probably have forgotten to do that: It’s not yet too late! You can check your credit report for free once per year with TransUnion and Equifax.

Why Should I Check My Credit Report?

This check will not tell you your credit rating or credit score. It will only tell you information about what credit products you are using and whether there are any problems such as late payments. For people who use credit responsibly and always pay off their balance at the end of the month, the purpose of the check is to make sure no identity mix-ups or identity theft has taken place.

For example, if your name is a fairly common one, it’s possible a mistake can happen and someone else’s credit card can be listed as yours. If they aren’t managing that card well, it’s your credit history that will get damaged.

If you find an item on your file that isn’t yours you can get the problem corrected before it becomes a major problem, such as when you go to renew your mortgage or purchase a car.

A less common but more frightening prospect is that your identity may have been stolen. Again, seeing the problem on your report will give you the tip to start fixing it.

Earlier this year, my credit card was compromised and used without authorization for a number of online purchases. (Ironically it was the card I only use about once per month, so I hope the police determined the source of the information theft and could use it to catch the fraudsters.) I think I should check my credit report to make sure nothing else has happened because of this security breach.

Does a Free Credit Report Include My Credit Rating or Score?

No. This check will not tell you your credit rating or credit score. You have to pay money to retrieve those. In general if you’ve been living within your means and paying your bills you don’t need to know the number anyway!

(Some RedFlagDeal users will play the system by signing up for a year’s service to check their score, and then cancel after they receive the first report for their “first month free” trial offer. I don’t encourage this, personally.)

How to Order Your Annual Free Credit Report for Equifax

You can order your Equifax “Credit File” for free by calling their toll-free number or by submitting a request in writing.

To Order Your Equifax Free Credit File by Phone

WARNING!
First, don’t trust any phone number given on a secondary website, including this one, to be correct!

Someone could hack my site and change the phone number. Then when you call, some fraudster will get your full name, address and Social Insurance Number: plenty of information to start stealing your identity!

The toll-free number for Equifax is provided on their website.

Here’s what I had to provide to the automated service to order my report by phone:

my Social Insurance Number (you can’t use the automated service without giving this)
my date of birth
my house number, but not street, city, or province
whether I have an apartment number
my postal code

***Interesting Bit***
The automated system asked for my credit card number, after explaining nothing would be billed to me. It then asked if I had a major credit card from MasterCard, VISA or American Express.

I said “no.”

The system responded that it will mail my report.

I actually DO have a major credit card in my name. It’s slightly possible that some internal check will compare my response with my file and reject my request for the credit report, but I doubt it. After all, people must call in who like me are (a) reluctant to give their credit card number out where they might be overheard or via cell phone transmission or (b) who don’t have their card with them at the time they make the call and who haven’t memorized their card number. If the request is rejected I will update this post, of course.

The automated system said I could expect my report in 3-5 business days. Knowing the postal service here and given the weekends and stat holidays coming up, I’ll expect it sometime in the New Year.

To Order Your Equifax Free Credit File by Mail or Fax

To request your free credit report from Equifax, print the form provided on their site.

You will need to provide

a photocopy of 2 different government-issued identification items
for example a driver’s licence, birth certificate or passport
if your current address is not on one of the photocopies of your id, you must also provide a copy of another document with your address
for example a utility bill, bank or credit card statement. You can black out the details if it still clearly shows the date of the document, the sender, your name and address and your account number.
your full name/s
address
any previous addresses within the past 3 years
at your option, you can provide: your Social Insurance Number, this is useful if you have a very common name
at your option, you can provide: your name and the last four digits of a major credit card

Sign and date the form.

The information you provide will

be used to update your file; it may also be disclosed to customers requesting your credit report
be used to issue you the correct report

Mail or fax the completed request form to the address or fax number listed on the Equifax.ca form.

So Do I Have to Give My SIN and Credit Card Number to Get a Free Report

As mentioned above,

you can order a free report by phone without giving a credit card number but you must provide your SIN.
you can order a free report by mail or fax without giving a credit card number or SIN but you must provide copies of two pieces of government id, your full address and date of birth.

Pick your poison!

When Will I Get My Equifax Credit Report?

The file will be sent by mail. It should arrive within 5-10 business days after the request is received.

Related Reading

Why Do You Need a Credit Card?

Join In
Have you ever found anything spooky when you checked your credit file? Please share your experiences with a comment.

I tend to think of credit and debt problems as a modern invention brought about largely by credit cards. It took a trip down a coal mine in Cape Breton to remind me that misuse of credit leading to soul-destroying debt is actually a very old problem.

Learning About Credit from a Man of the Deeps

For those of you who have watched a Rita MacNeil Christmas Special on CBC, this explanation will be unnecessary. But for the iPod generation, I will explain the Men of the Deeps is a group of male singers who all worked previously in the coal mines in Cape Breton.

I’m not sure whether the retired miner who led our tour of a coal mine in Glace Bay has ever sung or not but he definitely did work in the Deeps. He was the son of a miner and the grandson of two miners, one of whom died when the coal face he was cutting collapsed onto him. So when he spoke of the old days of mining he drew on personal experience.

Can’t Afford It? Don’t Worry You Can Buy It On Credit!

Our guide explained how the mining companies got and kept the men who would do this dirty dangerous life-threatening work. The trick was the way the company offered and used (or mis-used) credit.

Many of the first miners were lured here by golden-tongued tales in Britain and Europe of the guarantee of work and a house to live in. If the recruits didn’t have money for the fare on a steamship, the company would even loan them the $50—if they signed a work contract and agreed to re-pay the money over time.

Once here, the new workers found themselves in isolated communities where everything belonged to the mining company. All of the houses, the heating fuel, the water, and if there was any, the electricity, was provided, for a price, by the owners of the mine.

There was a store, too, with everything you could imagine for sale from simple food and clothes to luxurious high-priced items like cameras and porcelain dolls. Guess who owned the store? the only store?

Indebted Forever

The mining companies were happy to extend credit to the men who worked for them. That was the catch, though. They only allowed loans to those they employed. So if you wanted to quit, you had to pay all you owed, immediately, to the company. Most men couldn’t afford to do that. So they were stuck working in the mines, even if they feared and hated it.

Our guide also said that he believed that the mining companies gave the worst most dangerous jobs on the shift to those with the highest debts: those were the men who literally couldn’t afford to object or quit.

It’s Hard to Say “No” to Free Stuff

The company stores made it very easy to get into debt. Imagine the weeks leading up to a major holiday like Christmas or a special occasion like a birthday. Hopeful children and adults would look at the expensive, enticing items on offer at the store: leather ice skates with attached blades, Kodak Brownie cameras, phonographs, sewing machines, porcelain head dolls with fancy clothes.

It would have been easy for the miners to say “No” to these attractive goods if they had had to hand over a carefully saved wad of cash. But they didn’t have to spend a cent. The company would let them have the present of their child’s dreams and just put it on their bill.
And so they would end up farther in debt. Misuse of credit can be crippling.

Unions and Development Saved the Miners from the Credit Debt Death Spiral

Eventually through the work of the unions to improve working conditions in the mines, pay, and living conditions above ground, miners broke free of the credit/debt cycle. When they could build a home of their own, shop from non-company-owned stores like Eaton’s, and fuel their home with firewood, the miners could start to earn more than enough to service their debts.

What Will Save Us from Credit Card Debt?

Does this mean someday we will find a solution to the lure of credit card debt? Higher wages alone won’t solve that problem as the credit card issuers will just offer higher credit limits to encourage more over-spending. It’s unlikely that governments will intervene to impose limits on the amount of credit a consumer can have.

Perhaps the solution will develop when enough people demand changes to the credit issuing and usage system to prevent misuse of credit. I don’t really know.