Many folks don’t appreciate how vital it is to safeguard out the accurateness on their credit report before applying for credit, a loan or even just to make sure everything is correct. When a person applies for a car or home loan, they are often astonished to find that there are troubles the individual didn’t even know about and never knew existed.

Most credit reports contain mistakes and inaccuracies. It has been estimated that as many as 75% of all credit reports have mistakes or other invalid information at any particular time. If you know about the mistakes and inaccuracies you can dispute them and try to get them removed but if you don’t know about them they will just catch you off guard.

Many people are under the mistaken assumption that in order to check their own credit they must have a justifiable grounds to do so. This is erroneous. You have the right and even the responsibility to check your own credit report often. Identity theft is now on the increase and there are also the unavoidable errors that come from the sheer volume of reporting that many lenders must do. Everybody should make the effort to check his or her own information frequently.

Just one lone error on a report can affect the interest rate that you are offered and you can be turned down on loans for major purchases such as homes or cars. These days, even insurance companies turn people down for credit problems. That is why it is so crucial to check your credit report often.

There are many different entities that can ask for to check your credit information. Landlords, employers, utility companies, credit unions, hospitals, banks, finance companies, lawyers, the court and many, many more can request to query into your credit. However, it is imperative to be aware that no one can inquire into your credit without obtaining your direct permission.

In order to check out your own credit you can make contact with any of the three major credit-reporting bureaus. Those are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion in the United States. Each bureau retains their own information and they do not exchange information so consequently it is critical to get in touch with all three of them.

There are also credit monitoring services that you can take advantage of. These services will allow you to confirm all three bureaus at one time. They can also set an alert to let you know anytime a change occurs on your report.

You are accountable for knowing just what is being reported on your credit report and you can take steps to improve and repair your credit if you are aware of what is showing on your report.