credit report

Last night, I was teaching a first-time home buyer class and one of the students asked me a question about credit. When he applied for a loan, he found out that he was the victim of identity theft and that there were several companies on his credit report that he had never done business with. You have the right to know what is on your credit report and may want to check it a few months before you start looking for a house to make sure that there isn't any fraudulent activity that can lower your credit score so that you can clear up those blemishes before you apply for a loan. You can go to www.annualcreditreport.com and request a free credit report from all three credit reporting companies each year. You can either ask for all three reports at once or space them out over the year. The website even tells you how you can put a "fraud alert" on your credit report if you believe you were the victim of identity theft and requires creditors to verify your identity before extending credit in your name.