Help Prevent Identity Theft by Reviewing Your Free Credit Report

Why is your credit report important and how do you go about checking it? Watch this video to learn how:

As mentioned in the video, you have the right to one free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide credit reporting companies — Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, however, free credit reports are available on a weekly basis through April 2022. Order yours online from annualcreditreport.com or call 1-877-322-8228. You will need to provide your name, address, social security number, and date of birth to verify your identity.

Your credit report serves as a good snapshot of what your overall financial health looks like. On it, you can find your personal information, current and historical credit accounts from the past seven to 10 years (including their statuses, balances and payment histories), inquiries and public records.

 As you look over your credit report, be sure to check the following:

• Your personal and contact information.
• Check your name is spelled correctly, your current and previous addresses are represented and your Social Security Number is accurate.
• Open credit lines: Ensure any open account with a balance is one that has been opened with your authorization.
• Credit inquiries: Because these inquiries indicate to other lenders that you have applied for new credit, lenders may view multiple recent inquiries on your credit report as a sign that you may be overextending yourself. Be sure to review this section to ensure all inquiries are valid.
• Public record information: Ensure that any public record information such as tax liens, monetary judgments, bankruptcies, etc., is accurate and reflects the most current status and activity. Keep in mind that there may be a delay of 30 days or more until the most recent activity is reflected on your credit reports.

By regularly reviewing your credit reports, you can ensure that the information found in them is accurate. If you spot unfamiliar activity on any of your reports, it could be a sign of identity theft — that a criminal has used your personal information to open a credit account or take out a loan in your name. 


Noticing and reporting the crimes quickly can boost your prospects of getting the negative information removed, protect your credit score, and even help authorities catch the crooks. If you see a mistake on your report, contact the credit bureaus immediately so they can put a fraud alert on your account. A fraud alert will require creditors to verify your identity before providing a new credit line, sending an additional credit card, or increasing the credit limit on an existing line.

Please note that, according to the Federal Trade Commission, there is only one authorized website if you want to order your credit report online: annualcreditreport.com. If you get an e-mail or see a pop-up ad claiming to be from annualcreditreport.com or any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies, do not reply or click on any link in the message – annualcreditreport.com will never send you an e-mail solicitation for your free annual credit report, use pop-up ads, or call you to ask for personal information.