This is a friendly reminder: You are entitled to receive a FREE copy of your credit report, once every twelve months, from each of the three major consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), in accordance with the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACT Act).

AnnualCreditReport.com is the official site to help you obtain your free credit reports.

Don’t forget, this credit report is free. When ordered through the AnnualCreditReport.com website, you are not required to order any credit scores or extra protection. Those cost extra.

To check your information as often as possible, do not request all three reports at once. I recommend you request one report from each of the three companies, four months apart. For example: you could check Equifax in March, Experian in July, and TransUnion in November, and repeat every year. The information in all three is essentially the same, so you will find a problem more quickly checking one report every four months, rather than all three reports at the same time once per year.

Check your credit report for accuracy. If there is a mistake, immediately notify the credit reporting agency. I have discovered errors on my credit report in the past, and they were quickly corrected. Don’t forget the primary goal of the credit reporting companies is to provide accurate information about you to your creditors.