If you are not already actively monitoring and improving your credit report & FICO score. Here are 3 steps to assist and help you with building credit.

At the end of this guide you will have;

  • Access to Free FICO scores from 2 major national bureaus. (Excluding Experian)
  • Access to Free Credit reports from Equifax & TransUnion

 

The 3 major credit bureaus in the nation are as follows;

 

Experian

Equifax

TransUnion

We should all know that credit is necessary especially if you are “self-made”. So that speech that you received about avoiding credit cards at all costs lets just drop that right now.

Step 1 (View Your Report)

The 1st thing you should do is check your credit report. This can be done annually for free @ http://www.annualreports.com/.
Be sure to save your Report Numbers in a safe place so you can access the report again at a later date. I used Evernote for this.

Step 2 (Dispute)

The 2nd thing you should do is dispute anything that is incorrect or unfamiliar.

Step 3 (Monitor)

How you choose to monitor your credit score & report is completely up to you. I personally use Credit Karma primarily because it is the only complete free service available. Now you can find a few others around the internet. However I am sticking with Credit Karma they recently added Equifax and I see nothing but good things come from them.

Your credit score is automatically updated and can be viewed via Mobile app. To view your full credit report you can use the website.

Credit Karma

Provides;

  • Free FICO Score from Equifax
  • Free FICO Score from TransUnion
  • Free Credit Report from Equifax
  • Free Credit Report from TransUnion

 

 

Mint

Provides;

  • Free FICO Score from Equifax
  • Free Budgeting Tools.