Veterans and Servicemembers

Credit Laws

Active Duty Alert

A provision of a federal law known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act allows service members on active duty to place an Active Duty Alert on their credit report. Once you place an Active Duty Alert on your credit report, lenders must take additional steps to ensure your identity before allowing credit to be granted in your name. Active Duty Alerts remain in effect on your credit report for one year. To place an Active Duty Alert on your credit report, you may contact the three major credit reporting bureaus directly:

Security Freeze

Under Minnesota law, you may take action to protect yourself from identity theft even if you are not on active duty by contacting the credit bureaus to place a “freeze” on your credit report. Once a security freeze is placed upon your credit report, you will be given a PIN number, which will then be required in connection with any credit request in your name. There is no charge for placing a security freeze. To initiate a security freeze on your credit report, you must contact each credit bureau as follows:

Annual Credit Report

To stay on guard against identity theft, we recommend that you monitor the status of your credit report. Under federal law, you may obtain one free copy of your credit report per year from each of the major credit bureaus. You may obtain these reports in one of three ways:

1. Logging on to www.AnnualCreditReport.com
2. Calling (877) 322-8228
3. Writing: Annual Credit Report Request Service, Central Source, LLC, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, Georgia 30348-5281

Be aware that if you attempt to obtain a copy of your credit report through any channel not listed above, you may be charged for the report.