Keeping an Eye on your Credit | Cleveland Bradley County Teachers Federal Credit Union

You likely already know your credit valuation is used as a quick assessment tool by a seemingly ever-growing list of people and organization who control the important things in life. Not confined to judging your worthiness for a loan, credit scores are sometimes required of hopefuls for apartments, jobs and potentially even dates.

Given all that, it’s obvious how important it is to ensure your credit score is accurate and paints as positive a picture of you as possible. So, you may be wondering what you can do to keep an eye on yours. If that’s true, read on to learn some of the ways you can safely monitor your credit score.

Get Your Free Annual Report

Thanks to a government mandate, the three major credit reporting agencies—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—are required to provide you one free copy of your report every year. You can learn about this offer through the Federal Trade Commission’s Fair Credit Reporting Act website and you can request your free report from AnnualCreditReport.com.

Through April 2021, though, the three major credit bureaus— Equifax, Experian and TransUnion—are also offering a free credit report to each American every week. You can use the same annual credit report request form to get those weekly checks.

Pay for Reports as Needed

If you’ve already used your free check and need another before applying for a loan or taking another major step, you can purchase copies of your report from each agency. Visit their individual sites for more information.

Make the Best of Breaches

Being part of a data breach or other compromise that might expose your personal information to thieves can be scary and can put you on edge for a long time after. The one bright spot in those situations is the organizations that lose control of your data are generally compelled to provide you credit monitoring for free for some time afterward. If you see an organization that might have your data has experienced a loss, watch its site to see what it’s doing to make things right with those impacted.

Work With a Credit Monitoring Service

There are many companies that offer the opportunity to look in on your credit score and/or report regularly with no impact on the score. Some are free, but be aware that likely means you’ll face a barrage of ads in use and your inbox for everything from credit cards to retailers. Paid services can keep an eye on one or more bureaus and some even monitor the real and virtual places criminals trade stolen data to detect yours on the market.

If you have questions about your credit reports or how to monitor them, contact us today.