Checking your Credit Report!

There are all kinds of companies out there telling you that you should check your credit report regularly and for a fee they will check it for you and report to you any changes. People, you can do this yourself!

First, if you limit access to your information and if you are careful about revealing your personal information to people and companies that really do not need it, you will have less chance of adverse issues with your credit. I am not saying that no one will ever be victimized by credit or identity fraud if you “opt out” of having your information shared, but it will help significantly.

First, you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report each year and you can go directly to the credit bureaus to get it. The bureaus will even run a tri-merge report for you and if you really want to see your scores, you can pay $1.00 for that. Don’t bother though, unless you are checking to see progress of rebuilding your credit.

What you want to do is simply check that all the entries or tradelines as well call them, are in fact your accounts. You also want to check to make sure the report is accurate concerning the payment histories. If it is showing a late payment and you know you were not late and have documentation to prove it, you can and should dispute the erroneous entry. That will make a difference in your credit score. The last thing you should do is look at all of the entries and if you have accounts that are showing as open and you have not used those accounts in a long time or have no intention of using them, call the creditor and close them. The less open credit you have, the less likely you are to have problems down the road and your credit scores could move a little higher as a result of closing the tradeline. More to come on improving your credit scores!

If you need help understanding your credit scores, the bureaus have client relations departments and someone there can assist you. At all costs protect your credit. You will appreciate that you did when the time comes that you really need it!

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