Have you checked your free credit report lately?

A few years ago, Congress passed legislation that allows us one free copy of our credit report each year from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, TransUnion & Experian.

There are a host of companies that advertise this service, but many ask you to pay for credit monitoring services before you gain access to your credit report. I have found the best (and truly free) source to be annualcreditreport.com. You won't get your credit score, but you will get a completely free copy of what's on your financial records after verifying your identity. Instead of downloading all three reports at the same time, I personally download a copy once every four months (each time from a different agency). This way, I can monitor anything that doesn't look right.

Consider heading over to the site for the start of your financial check-up.