OMB Circular A-123, Appendix B, requires federal agencies to conduct a credit-worthiness assessment (perform a credit check) before issuing you a government charge card. The following facts of interest regarding credit checks apply not only to your government charge card but to your personal credit cards as well.

Did you know?

By law, you’re entitled to one free copy once every 12 months from each of the three major national credit bureaus:

• Equifax
• Experian
• TransUnion

Fight identity theft by monitoring and reviewing your credit report. You may request your free credit report online, by phone or through the mail.  The free credit reports you request online are available for you to view immediately upon authentication of your identity. The free credit reports you request by phone or mail will be processed within 15 days of receiving your request.

Don’t get charged for your free credit report.

The centralized site you want is https://www.annualcreditreport.com. There you can order free reports from all three of the bureaus (or if you prefer, call toll-free: (877) 322-8228 for automated service). Be careful — log on to the wrong one, and you may wind up paying for costly services. There are sites with similar sounding names, like freecreditreport.com, that attract customers with the promise of a free report, then push fee-based services like identity-theft insurance or credit monitoring at a monthly cost ranging from $9.95 to $29.95. The credit bureau sites themselves also try to sell you packages. 

Are these services worth buying?

Monitoring does alert you to unusual activity on your credit report, but if you don’t want to pay a monthly fee, you can use free reports to do your own periodic checkup. Simply request a free report from a different bureau every four months. According to Evan Hendricks, author of Credit Scores & Credit Reports, you’re looking for mistakes that can affect your credit score, as well as evidence of identity theft.

Want more information?

For more information regarding your government charge card and credit checks contact Cynthia Martin, DOI Integrated Charge Card Program manager at cynthia_martin@ios.doi.gov.