Your Permanent Record
Yes, it’s true. You do have a permanent record. Your credit report follows you wherever you go letting employers, landlords, utility, insurance and financial companies decide if you are trustworthy. For the military and its civilian personnel it also determines whether or not you receive a security clearance.
Your credit report now stands as one of the most important records that can affect your life. Because of this power to shape and direct the financial paths you will take, Congress has made it mandatory that the three credit reporting agencies provide you free access to your credit report once a year.
To receive your credit report go to www.annualcreditreport.com. You’ll be asked some security questions to ensure you are who you say you are before given access to your reports. You can select to see all of your credit reports at once or look at them one at a time at different dates. Make sure that you print out your report when you open it so that you have a document to work with.
The report will have personal information, credit summary, account information, listing of open and closed accounts, negative account histories, inquires, public records, and instructions on how to dispute information. Verify and correct any misinformation on your report. A 2003 Federal Reserve study of 250,000 credit reports found that 70% contained mistakes.
If you find this all confusing you can set up an appointment with a financial counselor at the Airman and Family Readiness Center
