Did you know that by law you are entitled to one free copy of your Credit Report for each of the three big credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). They will fulfill that obligation, at no charge – but only if you order from the right web site. Log onto the wrong one, and you may wind up paying for costly services.
The site you want to go to is AnnualCreditReport.com; there you can order free reports from all three of the bureaus (or if you’d rather you can call, toll-free 877-322-8228). Be careful because there are other sites with similar sounding names, like Freecreditreport.com, that attract customers with the promise of a free report but then push fee-based services like identity theft insurance or credit monitoring at a monthly cost that can range from $9.95 to $29.95! The credit bureau sites also try to sell you these services.
You may decide to purchase these services, monitoring does alert you to unusual activity on your credit report but you can also uses your credit reports and do your own monitoring. What I do is every four months I request a free report from a different bureau. That way I can find any mistakes that might affect my credit score. If you do find something wrong it’s up to you to contact the bureau and clear it up.
Keeping an eye on your finances is a good idea and requesting your free credit report is a good place to start.
Nancy on the Home Front 