You should take charge of your financial life.
That is why everyone - including you - should get a copy of their free online credit report.
There are three credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
You can get one free online credit report from each of them each year.
What should you do once you have received your free online credit report? First, you should check to make sure the report accurately represents your financial profile.
That is, the first thing you should do is make sure that no one has stolen your identity and is misusing your credit.
Identity theft is an increasing problem in America.
But if you have some major financial decisions to make in the coming months (such as applying for a mortgage), you want to take a closer look at the report.
For instance, often the credit bureaus will make multiple entries of the same event.
So, it will look like you have two credit cards of the same account open.
It's important to clarify those if they work against you (sometimes they work for you).
Then, you may want to consider challenging older black marks.
Companies often do not want to go to the trouble of digging up the records to prove that a late payment was made two or three years ago.
Often, they will let these fall off your record if you protest them.
When getting your free credit report, you should go to AnnualCreditReport.
com - the site set up by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to handle the requests.
If you go to other free online credit report sites, they may ask you to disclose information and/or sign up for recurring payments.