I'm often wary of the major credit agencies. They haven't won many points with me with all the lobbying they do to hold your personal information hostage and then charge you for access to "protection services". To me that's a bit like paying a cover charge to access your own file cabinet. That said, I want to give credit (no pun intended) where credit is due. Experian's Ask Max service strikes me as a very useful tool.

Who is Max? According to Experian.com she is Maxeen Sweet (you can't make this stuff up), VP of Public Affairs. She writes a column on their site called Ask Max where she answers questions about credit, credit scores, etc. You can submit your own questions. I'm not sure how many she actually answers (see her disclaimer below).

The real value of this... is in the archives, which you can search for answers she has previously written about your topic. There are a lot of articles. Yes, some of them are a mouthpiece for Experian's various credit protection programs (Credit Expert being one of them). But, overall I find her answers targeted and mostly fluff-free.

Here's her disclaimer:

Please understand that Experian policies and legal requirements change over time. Column responses reflect Experian policy at the time of writing. While maintained for your information, archived responses may not reflect current Experian policy or legal requirements.

Ask Max responses address general questions about credit reporting and direct marketing. Because of the volume of questions received, Maxine Sweet cannot respond to each question individually. However, if your question is of interest to a wide audience, she will include it in a future column.

You might do best to research your question as best you can first, then ask her a question that is packed with your research (likely contradictary answers you found online). I would bet that's the most useful way to approach it.mortgage calculator