Check Your Credit Report Once Annually

With this being a New Year, I wanted to remind everyone to check on their credit reports. Remember, you are entitled to one free credit report annually. So, take advantage of that by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com

When you get your credit report, check for things such as:

The dates on which your accounts were opened and closed

Information regarding your payment history

The credit limit shown for your revolving credit accounts

Whether or not all of your credit cards and other accounts are listed

Suspicious activity or accounts that you did not initiate

If you notice that any of this information is missing or is listed incorrectly, be certain to contact the credit bureau right away. Even the smallest detail can have a large impact on your overall credit rating. So, don’t let any information remain as is if it isn’t correct.

After you send a request to the credit reporting agency to make a change to your credit report, they will have 30 days to investigate the situation. If they find there is a mistake, they’ll make the changes and send you a new credit report. Also, if you make a change with just one of the credit reporting agencies, that agency will report the change to the other two. So, don’t worry about contacting all three if you find the same mistake on all of them.

If the credit reporting agency determines that your report does not need to be changed, they must send you notification that your credit report will remain unchanged. But, you have the right to add a little “blurb” to be added to your report that will explain your side of the story. Be sure to take advantage of this option. It could really help you in the long run.

So, as a part of your New Year’s Resolution, resolve to keep a better eye on your financial situation and order your free credit report at the beginning of every year.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 4:13 pm and is filed under Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.