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Annual Credit Report


Have you checked your free annual credit report from the 3 credit reporting agencies? Go to annualcreditreport.com to check your report! Make sure you do it for both yourself and your spouse! No catch, and no one is paying me to say this, just a friendly reminder as this is the time of year where I check mine! Make sure there isn't an account showing up that isn't yours! 

If you're like me, you're going to need your spouse with you to check theirs, as they always ask questions that I never know the answer to for myself, let alone for Kevin! Its always important to be on top of your credit reports, catching problems before they come around to bite you!


I checked mine this week, and will be sitting down with Kevin to go over his and make sure those pesky student loans we paid off are showing up as paid! 

Why check your credit report:

1. Detect early identity theft-If you see credit cards that weren't there before, check on them. It may be that you are a victim of identity theft, which can really harm your credit if you don't catch it! 
2. Maintaining good credit-for when you're ready to start looking for a home, buy a new car, or even to have good credit if a potential employer checks up on you
3. Checking for inaccuracies- It's not always identity theft, but removing accounts that may have showed up that shouldn't be on there. Kevin and I had our parent's accounts show up on each other's credit reports soon after we were married. 
4. Making sure there isn't an outstanding student loan (or other debt) you may have forgotten (yikes!) 
5. Be informed! See who is making inquiries, make sure you are paying bills on time, see what credit cards you may have thought you closed, but didn't.

Best part...its free! So why not check it??

If you find an inaccuracy, you can dispute it very easily through online disputes on each of the credit reporting agency website. Just a reminder this isn't to get your credit SCORE (which often has a nominal fee) but the report. The report shows details of things that make up your score. The report is more important than the score because it shows details of where you have outstanding debts, open accounts, closed accounts etc. There are a lot of advertisements that show up on these as you walk through, so you do NOT need to pay for anything, it is the law that you have the right to do this for free once a year. 


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