When was the last time you pulled your credit report?

Your credit report is a summary of your credit history usage and repayment; lenders use this information to determine how likely you are to repay your debt.  When you borrow money, most lenders report that line of credit to the credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion and Experian).  The lenders also report when you make, or miss, payments.

Each credit bureau is required to provide you with one free credit report annually.

Not all lenders will report to all of the credit bureaus; thus, it is common for credit reports to be different for each of the credit bureaus. In addition to having three different credit reports, you may also have three different credit scores—number that summarizes your credit risk; the higher the number the better.

Inaccurate information on your credit report may affect your credit score. The higher your credit score, the more likely you are to be approved for new credit and be eligible for low interest-rates.

Visit Annualcreditreport.com to request your free credit report(credit score not included).

We encourage you to pull your credit report from a different bureau once every four months. For example, in May, pull credit report A; in September, pull credit report B; in January, pull the last credit report, then repeat the cycle in May.

Pulling your credit report often will help you monitor any errors or accounts you didn’t open. Otherwise the first hint you’ll get that something is amiss is when your credit score drops unexpectedly.