Check your credit report with score to help improve credit and prevent identity theft

In this country, your credit score is a big deal. It’s amazing what a profound effect a three-digit number can have on your life. This article will talk about the importance of your credit score and why it is important that you check your actual credit report with score at least once a year.

A good credit score makes it easier to get credit cards or get auto and home financing. A bad credit score makes it incredibly difficult to get those things, and if you can get approved for financing, you’ll have to pay a much higher interest rate. Difficult financing and high interest rates aren’t the only burdens people with poor credit scores face. Your credit score is also used to evaluate your applications for things like insurance, employment, and renting a home.

Because poor credit can make many things in life more difficult, it’s important to get your scored credit report so you know what your score is and so you can check your credit report for anything you can fix. . help improve your credit score. It’s not unusual for errors on your credit report to negatively affect your score. If you find information on your credit report that is inaccurate or out of date and has already been corrected, you can make a phone call or write a letter to the credit reporting agencies to have them remove that type of information and doing so will improve your credit . score.

It is also important to check your credit score report to help prevent identity theft. If someone can open an account in your name, they may be able to charge bills you have no intention of paying. This happened to me personally on more than one occasion. I got a call from a collection agency one day asking why I hadn’t paid my cell phone bill. This was several years ago and at that time I had never owned a cell phone. Someone opened an account in my name, ran up over $400 on the cell phone bill, and since it was in my name, I was expected to pay. I didn’t even know about the account until I got a call from a collection agency. If I had checked my credit report regularly, I would have seen this account reported and they would have been able to take care of it much sooner.

That is just one example. It could have been so much worse than not paying a cell phone bill. Identity thieves can open credit cards in your name and rack up thousands of dollars in fees. It is very important to keep an eye on your credit score report so that you can avoid these types of scenarios and so that you can try to maintain a good credit rating to avoid paying astronomical interest rates and doing things like getting credit, insurance, employment. , and housing much easier.