How do I make sure my credit score is accurate?

Under the direction of the US government, the three credit bureaus created a Website called annualcreditreport.com. Here, the three credit bureaus will provide you with one free yearly copy of their credit reports. Note that they provide you the reports for free, but not the scores.

Because you don't have to take all three of them at once, some people take one every four months from a different bureau.

If you want to see the same reports a potential lender would be looking at, you can also go to myfico.com. Note, however, that this is not a free service.

Don't ever just assume your credit reports are correct. A Federal Trade Commission (FTC) study showed that slightly more than one in every four credit reports (26%) have at least one material error.

By the way, we are not talking about seemingly harmless things, such as an incorrect address. We're talking about egregious errors like the number of missed payments or the number of collections accounts ... just to name a couple. And these are all things that could have a very negative affect on your credit score – and you might not even be guilty of such a transgression!

If you should discover a mistake, don't wait; immediately dispute the information by contacting the three credit bureaus.