The way to go about keeping an eye on your report is to first get a summary of all your credit accounts and the total debt you’ve incurred. This includes the available limits and existing balances. Any inaccuracies you can then quickly rectify.

More importantly, by constantly reminding yourself of your credit report, you can budget and plan for the future. If you want to buy a brand new car or house, you need to make sure you’ll be easily granted the loan required for such expensive investments.

If you’re not willing to check your credit report that frequently, at least look over it thoroughly once a year. At the end of the day, it is up to the creditors to evaluate your report, so you only have control over correcting errors really. When a creditor does finally accept your account, they will then determine how much to pay you based on your credit history.

Credit history matters and things like bankruptcy and disclosure will be major factors. The national credit bureaus are responsible for collecting information for your credit history and they will indicate what accounts are overdue or late – they actually sell this information to creditors. Success for applications of car insurance, apartment leases, cell phone services and the like will all depend on their credit history.

Even if you think your credit history is good, you will need a copy of your credit report. You may find overlooked errors and compelling statements written on the report. Don’t be the last to know what’s in your file – get ahead of the game. Major consumer reporting companies can provide a copy of your credit report free of charge, so there is really no disadvantage to taking this step. If you fix your credit report, you may also end up securing a job promotion or loan application that you otherwise may have lost based on a silly error. Here you can read about the importance of credit score.