What Do You Know About Your Free Credit Report?

By Author: Jennifer Baxt
Total Articles: 200
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One of the most important tools that you have at your disposal to protect your credit, and repair it, is your credit report. Your credit report is very important because it lists everything about your credit, what needs to be repaired, what needs to be fixed and what your credit score is.

How do you expect to repair your credit score if you don't even know what your score is? Knowing your score will tell you how much you have to repair your credit score by, and where to start. If you have a credit score of 750, then you will know that you probably don't have to do too much credit repair. However, if your credit score is 500, you know you have your work cut out for you.

On top of that, by seeing your credit report, you will be able to see if there is any problems on it, as in credit errors. Credit errors affect roughly 75 percent of all credit reports. Credit experts state that one of the easiest ways to repair your credit report is to fix the errors that are not your fault. One credit error that is repaired can raise your credit score by as much as 50 points. When you are talking about interest rates and your ...
... ability to get credit, 50 points means a lot.

You can get your credit report from the three major credit reporting agencies, with TransUnion being the best and most respected of the bunch. A credit report would typically cost you about $40 to obtain, but thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have a trick up your sleeve. It is your own free credit report that you are entitled to every single year.

With the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you get a free credit report that you can use to repair your credit and find credit errors. The free credit report can come from any of the credit reporting agencies, and you can go to them directly if you wish. However, there are many websites that offer you the ability to get your free credit report through them. MyFreeCreditReport.com is one such site, but there are many more. However, you should be careful what websites you go to because some websites will be fronts for identity theft schemes. You put in your personal information, and they use it to steal your identity. Try and use well-known websites, or use the website of TransUnion to get the free credit report that you are entitled to under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Your free credit report is the most important tool at your disposal for repairing your credit report. While you do get a free credit report each year, you should not limit yourself to only one credit report. Every six months is a good timeline to get your credit report. You will get one for free, and pay for one, but it will keep you knowing what your credit is like and it will keep you from becoming a victim of identity theft.