Now’s a good time to check your credit report

Now that the holidays are over, it’s a good idea to check your credit report. Unfortunately, the holidays are a peak time for credit card fraud and identity theft, and checking your credit report is sometimes the only way to catch fraud.

You can check your credit for free at www.annualcreditreport.com. This report does not include your credit score but it can be purchased for $12.

There are three credit reporting agencies, and each of them is required to give you one
free report per year. Which means you can actually get 3 free credit reports each year, by requesting 1 report from each reporting agency. I suggest that you stagger these requests out over several months, rather than requesting from all 3 reporting agencies at once.

For articles and tips on how to improve your credit score, you might want to visit www.myfico.com. You can also purchase your 3-in-1 credit report and score at that site.