In these days of identity theft and hacking, it's a good idea to keep tabs on your credit report. While fraud alerts can help you know if someone is making unauthorized charges, those don't catch everything. If someone applies for credit in your name, you aren't going to be getting fraud alert texts, now are you?

Federal law says that you can get one copy of your credit report from each credit bureau once every twelve months. There are three credit bureaus, so if you spread out your requests, you can get one every four months. To get a completely free credit report without having to give a credit card number or sign up for some service that you have to remember, go to annualcreditreport.com. That's the site authorized by the Federal Trade Commission.

A credit report isn't the same as your credit score. A credit score is a single number that creditors use to judge your credit-worthiness. A credit report will include far more detailed information on every debt or revolving credit account you have, with information about how often you pay on time and how often you are late.

You want to look over the report carefully, with special attention to two things:

1) Do you recognize every account on the report? If not, there is a chance that someone has opened an account in your name. You want to address that immediately. Of course,the other possibility is that it's an old credit card you forgot you had. If you don't even remember it, you can probably close it, don't you think?

2) Does the report contain any incorrect information about your payment history? If you can prove the information is incorrect, the credit bureaus are required to fix it. You'll want to provide proof (the log of an electronic payment, cancelled check, etc.). Keep records of everyone you speak with and copies of everything you send. It may take a while, but erroneous information should come off.

So if you've never checked your credit report, put it on your schedule now!