Each week, we are sharing a financial wellness tip to help you make the connection between financial management decisions, your overall wellness, and student success. Money touches every aspect of our lives, and a lack of financial literacy can cause unnecessary stress and negatively impact one’s mental and physical health.
Credit Reports
Your credit report says more about how you manage money than about how much money you have. A credit report summarizes your past credit history - how you manage credit, payment history and account balances. It can also affect your buying power, your chance of getting a job, renting or buying a place to live, and buying insurance. It is used to determine credit worthiness, credit score, and interest rates you may be offered. It also tells potential creditors or employers information such as:
- Your name, including previous names
- Your address
- Your employer
- A listing of all accounts and loans
- Recent credit applications
- Any collection accounts
There are three major credit bureaus which produce credit reports, so these reports can vary slightly because of this. Federal law gives you the right to get a FREE COPY of your credit report every 12 months; however, through December 2023, everyone in the U.S. can get a free credit report WEEKLY from all three nationwide credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) at AnnualCreditReport.com. If you have never checked your credit report or haven’t looked in a while, now is the time! You want to know what the report includes before agreeing to let potential employers, landlords, dealerships or anyone else access it. If you discover any errors or fraudulent information, be sure to take action to dispute the error.
Be sure to follow the Financial Literacy team on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for more financial tips throughout the semester!
