Time to Check the Credit Report

If you've been following along with me, you know that every 4 months I run a credit report to make sure nothing looks crazy or out of whack.  You are entitled to a free credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies every year.  So every 4 months, I run one from a different agency. That means within the year I have run all three and I can follow my credit throughout the year rather than just once in a calendar's turn.

So if you are playing along, it's time to run our Experian credit reports.

Go to AnnualCreditReport.com (the only truly free site to use and sanctioned by the government) and select your state.  Fill out the info your are asked and tell it you want only the Experian report (if you're doing the every 4 month plan with me).  Then....off you go!

For me?
I had 0 potentially negative items in my report
I had 20 accounts in good standing in my report.

When I read that 20 account bit, I was like, "Wha...?"  But as I look through them, 16 of them are old accounts that are already closed and have to appear on here until a set date (ranging between 2012 and 2020).   So that's 4 open accounts. 

What are those 4 open accounts? 

• American Express - Chip's credit card that I'm a joint account holder on.
• Chase - my "big" credit card that I hate and am attacking now. It will be the next to go for balance and emotional reasons.
• GMAC Mortgage - Our current mortgage.
• USAA - Our bank and my preferred credit card.  This will be the only one we keep when all are paid off.

Everything else looks all well and good.  So one more report done and I feel safe and sound about my credit.

How did you fare?

Photo credit: LotusHead