Credit Reports & Score

The importance of good credit can not be over-emphasized in the American economy, particularly in the current economic climate. Everything from home loans to auto loans to credit card applications depend on your credit score. The credit score is a number based on statistical analysis of the credit reports, and gives an indication of how creditworthy a person is. Here are a couple of useful websites to keep track of your credit.

Every person with an SSN is eligible to receive a free credit report once in 12 months from the three major credit agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. According to the Federal Trade Comission website, the official website to obtain this is annualcreditreport.com. Other websites seemingly offering free credit reports, come with fine print requiring signing up for other services. I have not comprehensively reviewed all the other websites, but the website mentioned above is the best one to use.

By law, the above website does not have to provide a credit score. It only provides a comprehensive list of activities on your credit. A good website to get your credit score is creditkarma.com. Most other websites require payment for a credit score, but this website generates revenue through ads. After creating a profile, you can track changes in your credit score with time. It also provides a credit simulator to project changes in credit score with various actions such as taking a loan, getting a new credit card etc. It has a whole bunch of other nice features worth trying out.