Your credit report affects your life in so many ways, many more than most people realise. A poor credit report can dog you for the rest of your life unless you take steps to fix it up. And what is the first step to fixing up your credit report? Get a copy of it and have a look at what it says.

The information on your credit report is used by many agencies to assess your credit worthiness. What is your credit worthiness? Well lets say you decide to get a loan for a new car. You apply for a car loan. The company which receives the application has to decide whether or not it should grant you the loan. And there are quite a number of things it will take into account when making that decision. And one of them is your credit score and the information that appears on your credit report.

There are 3 nationwide consumer reporting agencies and these collect information on everyone. This information in total makes up your credit report. What type of information is kept? Your name, other names, your address and any alternative or previous addresses to start with. And all sorts of things that you may never have even begun to think about.

For example if youve ever been sued. Or been bankrupt. Or in prison. Or even just how you pay your bills.

Remember that little electicity bill that never quite got paid until after they sent you all sorts of nasty warnings? These are the types of things that appear on your credit report, and lots more. And these are the types of things that the company that you just applied to for that car loan would like to know. To help it decide whether or not it ought to give you that loan, in other words whether or not you are credit worthy.

And its perfectly possible that there can be errors on your credit report, and these errors can affect you without you even knowing about it. Unless you take action.

It is very important for people to keep up to date with the information that is kept on their credit reports, and to take immediate steps to ensure that it is strictly correct. There are things you can do to correct errors if they appear, but if you dont know that they are there then you wont be able to correct them, and they may affect you for years to come.

And even if your credit report is accurate you still need to know what it says. Even poor credit reports can be improved on with some effort and understanding of the steps needed to do so.

Luckily the law specifies that you are entitled to get a free copy of your credit report every year. Its not a difficult process. It doesnt take that long. And although you may be in for a surprise, its always better to know what it says than to ignore it.

So, youre entitled by law to a free copy of your credit report every year. Take advantage of your entitlement. Go on, get a copy of your report and see what it says.