Section Subtopics What Is A Credit Report? What Can You Do To Improve Your Credit Score? What Is On Your Credit Report? Who Can Check Your Credit Report? How Does A Lender Use Your Credit Report? Credit Safety Expense Ratios

Check Your Credit Report Regularly To Detect Fraud

  Check your credit card statements every month for charges

  that you haven't made can only find fraud on accounts you

  know you have. However, there is always the possibility that

  that someone has opened an account in your name without

  you knowing it.  It's important then to make a thorough check

  by regularly ordering a credit report.

  As with much less problematic inaccuracies, identity fraud is

  something you can detect and remedy most effectively by

  checking your credit history thoroughly and routinely.

  Quite often credit files contain inaccuracies that can harm your

  credit rating.  These are often the result of something as simple

  as a clerical error or a computer glitch in which your file is

  mixed with that of someone with a similar name or social

  security number.

Be Careful with your credit card and social security numbers, especially on line

  The number of fraudulent emails spammed to millions of

  inboxes asking that you confirm your personal information

  seems to rise every day.   Never respond to these or any other

  request outside of the site you intentionally navigated to.  And

  when you're shopping on line, never give credit card

  information without knowing that the site is secure.