It is usually a good thing in the personal finance world when you pull your credit report so why am I mad that I pulled mine this time? Well I was not thinking clearly when I went to annualcreditreport.com and pulled TWO reports on the same date.
I am now left with only one report that I can pull for the rest of the year and we still have TEN months left!!!! A friend of mine recently had his identity breached, with someone trying to open multiple accounts using his information. This had me spooked and pulled out my spreadsheet of credit report requests only to find out that I had not requested any official reports last year.
This meant that I could request all three any time this year so I began the process. Now the way I utilize my credit reports is to pull one from each of the three bureaus every four months. I spread out the reports because they generally have the same information so it makes more sense to spread out my requests over the entire year so that I can keep up to date with the changes that happen.
This time I was spooked by what happened to my friend and without thinking I printed off reports from Transunion AND Equifax on the same day.
This was not a very efficient use of the credit reports, especially since they both contained the same information and there was nothing that I needed to be worried about. I think part of what got me to be so complacent was that I also monitor my credit information on CreditKarma and Quizzle and those two places report from credit agencies.
My credit score is right about 763 (give or take a few points from each bureau) and there have been no inquiries lately so I was not worried about my credit history. This led me to be complacent and not order any reports last year but then I freaked out and ordered them all at once this year.
I need to go back to my regular schedule of ordering one report every four months but that unfortunately will not be put into place until 2012 rolls around. I need to go back to my Google calendar and schedule a credit report check and then not do it until that date actually comes around. In fact I will go ahead and schedule them right now.
How do you keep up with your credit information?
We do ours every four months, once from each agency. Well, in theory it’s every four months, but I know I’m about ten days late for the one that’s due now, so your post is a good reminder to add it to my to-do list!
It’s always good to keep a credit report check. I usually get mine every 4 months to get quarterly reports. Thanks for sharing CreditKarma – haven’t tried that before.
It is easy to be complacent about credit reports until you hear about someone having a problem. It has been a while since I checked my credit score. Thank you for the reminder. You really should check regularly in case your identity has been compromised.
I do check regularly. In fact I get it every four months…I just said in the post that I pulled TWO instead of one this time.
I usually just do it once a year or whenever I am about to take on a big loan.
-Jean
Usually I do it once a year.