I was watching the news the other day and they reminded me that you can get a free annual credit report once a year. You can go to a website to view it immediately. Website address is
annualcreditreport.com

Just ordered mine and saw some items that needed attention. Thought I would share...

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Theresa
Mom of 3 boys and 1 girl

*bumping* b/c this is a great reminder!

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If I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong) you can actually get your free report up to 3 times per year if you order it once from each of the three places where you can get it for free. Does anyone have the listing of the places that do that?

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I just looked up the three agencies that do this. They are:

Experian Experian | Free Credit Report and Credit Score | Check Your Online Credit Report Today.
Equifax Equifax Personal Solutions: Credit Reports, Credit Scores, Protection Against Identity Theft
TransUnion TransUnion

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Now see, that would have made more sense. I just ordered all three to see if they looked similar or not. Transunion did not have the information for me online. The other two were fairly similar, with only about three things differing.

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Theresa
Mom of 3 boys and 1 girl

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I still think you have to pay for your actual credit score. It is a great idea to check the report though and make sure no one has stolen your identity.

I just went through a financial awareness class, where they really emphasized the free credit report site already listed here. What they suggested, though, is to spread out your requests to the three different credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax) throughout the year so that you get all three annually but you don't have to go longer than 4 months without viewing at least one. You just annotate on a calendar which one you're going to do which month (e.g., Jan/Experian, May/Equifax, Sep/Transunion), and start over the next year. And, no, you don't get your FICO score free with it, but they usually allow you to purchase it for about $5.95 when you get your free report. You get your report (and score, if purchased) almost instantaneously online.