We bought a car yesterday. We cut our car search short when we test-drove a ridiculously good deal yesterday. In honor of the event, today’s video is a freecreditreport.com commercial. And, of course, I have to issue a warning against freecreditreport.com. It’s not free unless you sign up for credit monitoring. Instead, I use annualcreditreport.com.

Happy Friday!

While I like the FreeCreditReport.com commercials, I would never sign up for the service. Since you have to get a paid service in order to get the *free* report.

Happy Friday!

While it is possible for you to get a free credit report once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus, you often have to pay for your credit score (creditkarma.com offers a free credit score), and for any additional views. (Exception to that is when you are denied credit, in which case the agency used must provide you with your credit report if you ask within 60 days.)

Now, however, it is possible to check your credit report and your score from TransUnion, as much as you want, for six months. The reason? Apparently a clas action lawsuit settlement resulting from TransUnion’s practice of selling consumer profiles to third parties. At any rate, you can go to listclassaction.com to sign up.

Hat tip for this story: My Two Dollars.

Your credit history is important. That’s why the 18th tip is to:

Regularly check your credit report.

Look for inaccuracies and take the steps to fix mistakes on your credit report. You are entitled to a free credit report each year from each of the three major credit bureaus.

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Just to be clear: I don’t advocate freecreditreport.com, which only gives you the credit report after you sign up for the credit monitoring service.

I prefer a truly free credit report once a year from each of three bureaus via annualcreditreport.com. (Hint: Space them out and get one from a different bureau every four months.)

That said, enjoy the commercial. Happy Friday!

You probably know how important it is to regularly check your credit report. And, if you know how to work it, you can get a free credit report every four months (one from each credit bureau once a year). But what about those other sites? The ones that offer a free credit report? Well, watch out. The credit report may be “free,” but the services you sign up for when you view your credit report aren’t.

Did you inadvertently sign up for a credit monitoring service?

It’s one of the biggest gimmicks out there. Get something “free” if you sign up for something that costs…more. And it applies to the free credit report. Many Web sites automatically sign you up for a credit monitoring service when you go to view your credit report. That’s why they’ve asked for a credit card. It is automatically charged to your card to the tune of between $7.95 and $14.95 per month. And some of these services even charge a “per item” fee. You give them permission to automatically dispute a negative item on your credit report, and you are charged per item. And because it’s automatic, even if the information is accurate it is disputed. Which means you just wasted your money.

Do you need a credit monitoring service?

You really don’t need a credit monitoring service, if you keep on top of your credit report. But if you must have one, go ahead and sign up through your credit card. Many cards offer credit monitoring for a cost of a small percentage of your balance. So if you have no balance each month, then you get the credit monitoring for free.

And remember: the only authorized site to get a truly free credit report is www.AnnualCreditReport.com.