| You see the ads everywhere: free credit report | | | | The bad news is that every other kind of request will |
| available! Since your credit rating will affect whether | | | | affect your rating. In essence, if you apply for a job |
| you can buy a home, get a credit card, rent an | | | | and they run your credit, you will lose a small number |
| apartment and increasingly, whether you will get a job, | | | | of your points for their having done this. Ditto if you |
| it is important to keep track of it. That's because you | | | | apply to get a bank account. In both cases, these are |
| can easily be the intentional or unintentional victim of | | | | usually not necessary in order to establish your |
| credit fraud. However, what effect (if any) does | | | | worthiness for a job or bank account and Congress is |
| requesting such a report have on your credit score? | | | | actively debating a law to prevent employers (though |
| Will checking your scores regularly ultimately cost you | | | | not banks which offer checking and savings accounts) |
| the apartment you wanted to rent? | | | | from being able to freely access credit reports except |
| The answer is both simple and not so simple. When | | | | in cases of sensitive positions. |
| you check your credit rating yourself, you can make a | | | | However, there is a way that you can protect your |
| request from the various agencies, such as Experian, | | | | good score. If you sign up for monthly services which |
| Equifax and Tans Union to provide you with the | | | | provide ratings, have them send you an official report |
| information, or you can contact an aggregator who will | | | | and bring it along to the interview. Your potential |
| bundle all three reports into a single, easy to read | | | | employer can see your credit rating and you will not |
| report. When you run these kinds of checks, they are | | | | lose points since those kinds of reports don't affect |
| not listed on your report and they will not affect your | | | | your rating. |
| credit score at all. | | | | |