Are You Monitoring Your Credit Report?

Some big name financial experts (like “Dave Ramsey”) hate debt so much they pretty much say “who cares what your credit score is?” I guess if I were a millionaire with plenty of liquid assets and a direct response marketing machine cranking out new revenue all the time, I probably wouldn’t care either!

But, unfortunately most of us aren’t in that enviable position! And so, it likely PAYS to monitor your  credit report for a number of reasons.

Here’s a new one, for example, that I just learned:

After Bank of America tried to impose a monthly fee for using a debit card, I resolved, as much as possible, to do business with local credit unions. I just moved and happened to find a tremendous one.  As I was applying for an account, their software AUTOMATICALLY CHECKED MY CREDIT SCORE!

I suppose they wanted to make sure that people with bad credit would not even be applying for MEMBERSHIP. Fortunately my credit score was fine, but who knew you could (potentially) be denied credit union membership for having a low credit score? I didn’t – until now that is.

Another reason to regularly access your credit report is to check erroneous information. The last time I refinanced my home, an item was on my report from many, many years ago, long after it was legal or necessary to mention it.

When it’s so easy to get a free credit score, why wouldn’t you check on your credit report at least annually? By law the credit companies are REQUIRED to make a copy available free… and even more often if your identity is stolen. And of course, there are companies that in addition to letting you access your free credit score instantly online provide other services that the often “consumer unfriendly” credit bureaus don’t provide!

Note: Thanks to FreeScore.com for sponsoring this post.