Every person is
allowed one free credit report per year. Get yours at the official site
at www.annualcreditreport.com.
Be careful of similar sites. They want to charge you! There are 3
national credit agencies (Transunion, Equifax, TRW) and each is required to
offer you one free report per year...One technique is to pull just one of the 3
now, saving your others to spread throughout the year. This way you can
keep tabs on your credit over time w/out paying a service. And don't
worry, pulling your own credit report does not ding your score like a real
inquiry for credit does.
You won't get your
credit score for free though. Even on the free site they are only
required to show you your credit report. You get to pay extra to see your
score. Credit scores are a whole other animal and I will save that for
another blog post but suffice it to say they are critical to good financial
health and in getting the lowest interest rate available from mortgages to
credit cards. You can pay extra for your score(s) at annualcreditreport.com
or there are commercial sites that offer your credit score,
typically in addition to credit monitoring. I don't normally advocate
paying for something you can get for free and yet I myself subscribe to MyFico.com. The site has some useful tips and a
free or discounted trial if you find yourself curious. Use it if you are
planning a major purchase, like a home, to make sure you're on track to get the
best rate possible.
If you have a real
issue w/your credit or have a client that is "credit challenged" you
might even consider a commercial site to help repair it. Again, I tread
even more carefully here because most credit repair companies are dubious at
best and outright crooks at worst. Here's one I came across that appears reputable Credit West Consultants. They send us useful
email tips on credit repair and score improvement in general. Most of it
is common sense but I've learned some neat tricks from them.
Bottom line: Review your credit report at least annually and keep your score as high as possible to keep your interest rates as low as possible.
Eric Lundberg - NMLS #261588
Eugene , OR .
Eric Lundberg - NMLS #261588
President, Chinook Mortgage Ltd - NMLS #261588
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