It’s important to get your free yearly credit report and you can space it in such a way, that you get one free credit report for one credit bureau every 3 months. This way you will not have such a large gap in between checking your credit history. Read more to find out.

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Free Yearly Credit Report
You can get your yearly credit report for free from each of the top three credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. It is often a good idea to space out your credit reports so you can check it once every 3 months. For example, you are entitled to get 1 credit report from Experian, 1 credit report from Equifax, and 1 from TransUnion, only once within a 12 month span. So instead of getting all 3 at one time, say on January 1st, you should space them out evenly. You would get one credit report in January from Experian, another credit report from Equifax in April, and the last credit report from TransUnion in August.This way you can check your credit report at different intervals throughout the year. This will give you the maximum coverage of keeping your credit report error-free and up-to-date.

Important note: Know that the free yearly credit report that you get from the three major credit bureaus do not come with a credit score. In fact, the credit bureaus will charge you up to $50 just to see your credit score.

Tip: You do not need to pay for your credit score. You can get it here at ReallyFreeCreditScore.com for really free.
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When you check your credit report and score, be sure to thoroughly look through it and make sure everything is correct. The first section in your credit report will entail all of your personal information such as names used and previous addresses. When you fill out loan applications and credit card applications, make sure that you use the same name. Using your legal name will help reduce the number of different names that show up in this section. It will also help reduce any human error of having your credit report mixed up with someone with a similar name.

After your personal information, your credit report will display negative information and such a delinquencies, bankruptcies, or accounts in collection. Depending on which credit bureau you pull from, this information may be merged with your credit history. Your credit history will show all the accounts that you have open, is currently closed, or have been paid off. Also in this section it will show any late payments past 30 days and late payments past 90 days. Late payment records will stay on your credit report for up to 7 years, so be sure that you pay your bills on time each month.

The last section will show any soft and hard inquiries on your credit profile. An inquiry is whenever someone accesses your credit profile. Soft inquiries can only be seen by you and it will not affect your credit score. Things like checking your credit score yourself will fall underneath this category. Hard inquiries are done when you apply for loans, open new bank accounts, and apply for credit cards. Too many of these hard inquiries will have a negative affect on your credit score. Inquiries will drop off of your credit report after 2 years and will not affect your credit score after that.

You may notice in your credit report an extra tab on the right that says they will show you your credit score. But when you click that link, the credit bureau will ask for a payment to access this credit score. Know that you do not have to pay for your credit score and that you can get it here for free. Use the link below to access your free credit score.

Click here for your free credit score and see it instantly.