Want Healthy Credit? How to Check Your Credit Report and Other Tips

You should check your credit report regularly to catch any potential errors or attempts at credit or identity theft. By knowing your accounts, creditors, and overall credit health, you’ll easily be able to spot attempts at fraud. You’ll also be able to make a list of action items to improve your credit score and overall creditworthiness.

Learn more about what your credit report contains, how often you should check it, and how the best identity theft protection software can make monitoring your credit a no-brainer.

Why is it important to check your credit report?

Your credit report is a comprehensive document that gives you an overview of how you handle your credit accounts. Based on how diligent or neglectful you are in paying off your accounts, you’re awarded a three-digit credit score to show your likelihood of repaying your debts on time.

You should regularly review your credit report to make sure all of the documentation is accurate. You’ll see what lenders see when they decide whether to extend you credit or not and you’ll be able to catch any discrepancies that may affect your score. Checking your credit report can help you catch identity theft, inaccurate charges, or fraudulent accounts before they become an overwhelming problem.

Stay alert to fraud

Identity thieves that get ahold of your Social Security number (SSN) can open accounts in your name, try to take out loans, etc. If you regularly check your credit report, you can see these unknown accounts and alert someone.

Fix any errors ASAP

Errors may not necessarily be associated with fraud. Creditors can get payment information or credit limits wrong. Checking your credit reports allows you to catch these errors and fix them quickly so they don’t affect your score.

Improve your credit

If you’re looking to improve your credit score (and who isn’t?), reading your report can help you see what’s bringing your score down. From there, you can take action steps to improve your credit score by resolving negative reports.

What is included in your credit report?

The information in your credit report gives an accurate picture of your credit history and creditworthiness. You’ll find personal and financial information in the report.

• Name and previous names and aliases
• Addresses past and present
• SSN
• Date of birth
• Phone numbers
• Employment history
• Joint applications
• Credit record
• Payment history
• Current debts
• Credit score
• Hard credit inquiries
• Bankruptcies
• Accounts in collections

How often you should check your credit report

You’re guaranteed a free credit report every year. You should check it when you request your annual free copy. However, there are other times when you should check your credit outside of your annual report. If you’re trying to build credit or make any major money moves, you should check it quarterly.

Other times to check:

• Your information has been included in a data breach.
• You’ve had a drastic change in your credit score.
• Your identity has been stolen.
• You received an alert from your credit monitoring software.
• You’ve taken out a major loan or opened a new credit account.

How to keep your credit safe

Staying diligent is the key to keeping your credit and your identity safe. There are several steps to take to safeguard your credit.

• Keep your credit frozen unless you’re using it.
• Check your credit report quarterly.
• Don’t give information out on calls, emails, texts, or websites that you didn’t initiate the first contact.
• Use credit and identity theft protection software.

Credit and identity protection services

A credit and identity theft protection service can take all of the manual work out of monitoring your identity. Depending on what service and plan you choose, these services can monitor all your credit and financial information for unhealthy changes.

Here are some of our favorite providers:

FAQs

Bottom line

Checking your credit report is a good defense against identity and credit theft. It can show you any errors, fraud, or action items you need to handle to keep your credit score high. Using a credit and identity theft protection service can automate this process and alert you if something looks suspicious.

The best identity theft protection services include credit monitoring, insurance, remediation specialists, alerts, and more to safeguard your credit and identity. Your life is busy, so let one of these premium services make protecting yourself a little easier.