[1]Photograph Credit: Flickr (Dan Eriksson)
Though you have probably already requested your first credit report this year, I wanted to remind you in case it slipped your mind. Having placed a reminder on my calendar during the Planning for Success series [2], I requested our credit reports in February.
Staying proactive in reviewing our credit reports alerts us to any unusual activity. Protecting our accounts with protective passwords and credit limits, we hope to deter identity thieves from our accounts.
To check those accounts often, we request one credit report every four months. With one free credit report each year from each of the three credit bureaus, we can monitor our credit all year along without paying a monitoring service.
If you are following my recommended schedule [3] for requesting your credit reports, then check the date on your previous year’s credit report before requesting a new report. Wait at least one full year from the processing of your last request. For example, I requested my TransUnion report on February 20, 2012, so I can request another this year for free anytime after February 20, 2013.
In using time wisely, I request our reports every 4 (or 5) months. During the first quarter of 2013, I requested Paul’s Experian report and my TransUnion report. When the reports arrived, I followed this plan:
1. Review for errors [4],
2. Challenge discrepancies [5],
3. Run a free Experian credit score [6] for Paul,
4. Run a free TransUnion credit score [7] for Tracy,
5. Replace last year’s reports with the new reports and credit scores in the first file slot of Box 1 of my important documents [8], and
6. Put file box away until June’s credit check.
By scheduling our credit report requests on my calendar, I stay on track while checking our reports. Though we have not had any unusual activity, I find reassurance in seeing the same information reported repeatedly. This process only takes a few minutes, but finding an error can save you money, energy, and time. Happy checking!
Question: Do you regularly check your credit reports?