Getting Your File...
by Bayonet
There exists, somewhere, a file on you. Maybe you know about it, maybe you don't. It's there either way. As some Greek guy once said, Know thyself. At the very least, know what they know.
The following addresses are useful for getting your credit records. Call or write, and they'll probably be "kind" enough to walk you through the process of getting one. For a fee.
Your credit history is available for $3 in Maine and Montana, $5 in Maryland, $10 in Massachusetts, free in Vermont, $8 in all other states.
This is the address to use if you have not been denied credit in the past sixty days. Your credit history is available for free, one copy a year.
This is the address to use if you have been denied credit in the past sixty days. Also free, also only one copy a year.
Free if you've been denied credit in the past sixty days. Otherwise, $15 for an individual account record, $30 for a joint account record.
Keep in mind, requesting copies of your credit history affects your credit history negatively! I guess they figure if a lot of people are checking you out, there must be some cause for concern. If you do this at all, do it once a year. Also a keen way to blow someone's credit rating, though the volume at which you'd have to do it would become ridiculous.
The next address is for medical information. Unlike requesting credit reports, this shouldn't adversely affect your rating.
Free, believe it or not.
Now for the fun stuff. Use these next addresses to get information about your criminal record, or just to see if the feds have you listed as someone worth watching. Incidentally, if you don't have a record with them, requesting copies of one will make them start one. Again, I guess the reasoning is if you ask, you must have something to hide.
This is the address to use if you do not have a criminal record.
The first 100 pages are free, but then it's $0.10 a page. If your report is more than 100 pages long, well... bully for you.
This is the address to use if you do have a criminal record.
This costs you seventeen bucks, because crime (after all) doesn't pay. Criminals do.
The least interesting, but by no means least useful, address is the next one, for Social Security information.
This is free. Since it's also a government office, I'd request a report three or four times a day. Get the most bang for your taxpayer buck, but please... recycle all that paper.