You Should Check Your Credit Report Annually
You probably already knew that you should be keeping an eye on your credit score. In the USA, your credit score is the biggest indicator to most lenders whether or not you will pay back money that you owe. If you don’t think that’s a fair indicator, I hear you, but I can’t fix that. I do know that there are efforts to show rent payments and the small installment loans (Klarna, Affirm, etc.) on your credit so that you can benefit from your on-time payments even if you don’t have a home or car loan. Until we change the system, this is what we have to work with and it will matter if you’re trying to get any loan.
So…you go to annualcreditreport.com to pull your reports from the 3 major credit bureaus. You can do this for free once every 12 months. Make a calendar reminder for yourself to do this. That’s how I stay on top of these spread out tasks.
All you’re checking is that the items that show on your credit report are correct. If something is there that isn’t your debt, or you’ve already paid it off and it’s still showing as an open debt with a balance, then that’s something you should be contacting the creditors about. Sometimes you need to dispute it, but sometimes it’s just a phone call to the creditor to get the status changed. Try not to let it overwhelm you if something isn’t right.
Now, if you see debt that you know you never signed on for, then you may be a victim of identity theft. There are steps to correct that too. I’m not going into those details because that’s a topic all on its own, but to take precautions, you can also freeze your credit with each credit bureau. You just have to “thaw” it (which is easily done) if you are applying for a credit card, a mortgage, car loan, apartment lease, etc. It’s worth doing, you just have to remember that you did it or every application will probably get denied.
Anyway! This is one of the ways you can stay on top of your personal financial picture. This will not give you your credit score, but it will show you which creditors are showing up on your credit report to create your score. Keep in mind that the credit scores you receive for free through your credit cards or the various apps can be a bit different from the one a lender would see. That’s because there are different scoring systems that place priority on different types of debt. Yes, it’s annoying. Again, not something I can control. Just something to be aware of.
Who wants to learn how to write a budget for a house?
