Credit reports are windows into your private life.  Lenders look at your credit history to assess your creditworthiness and decided whether to grant credit and at what interest rate.  For these reasons monitoring one's credit report has always been important.

Monitoring your credit records is now even more important due to the increasing need to protect against identity theft and fraud.  Often, the first knowledge you may recieve that someone has assumed your identity or opened new credit accounts is after they default on loans or collection agencies start calling you.

A free credit report may be requested annually from each of Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union, the three major credit reporting agencies that collect credit information about consumers.