How to Protect Your Credit History

A good credit history is a precious asset. It enables you to open accounts or get loans whenever you need them. Lenders will see you as a good potential customer and may offer incentives like a low interest rate to win your business. Identity thieves can destroy your good history by running up bills in your name unless you take steps to protect it.

Instructions

1

Order your current credit report from TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You must check all three because the information often differs. The reports are free and carry no other purchase obligation if you get them through annualcreditreport.com, the MSN Money financial site explains. This website is mandated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to give yearly reports at no cost.

2

Search each report carefully for signs of identity theft such as accounts you do not recognize or strange names and addresses linked to you. Look for other mistakes at the same time, as credit bureaus often include errors like incorrect balances or payments improperly reported as delinquent on reports. These can also hurt your credit history.

3

Contact the creditor for any unrecognized accounts and challenge other suspicious or erroneous information with the credit bureaus, the Federal Trade Commission recommends. Each bureau provides an electronic dispute form and allows you to track the progress of your dispute. Corrections must be made within a month for information that cannot be verified, according to the FCRA.

4

Place a credit freeze on all three of your credit reports, consumer advocate Clark Howard recommends. This runs from $3 to $10 for each bureau, depending on your home state and whether you are a fraud victim. You must do a separate freeze through each credit bureau. No one, including you, can get a new account in your name without providing a special code or password. This protects your credit history from virtually any fraud attempt.

5

Set up a monitoring schedule for your credit reports to catch and dispute any mistakes as early as possible. MSN Money advises ongoing monitoring of your history by getting one report every four months. This gives you ongoing protection by allowing you to catch suspicious information quickly.