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There are lots of ways to get a “free” credit report. There’s a website run by one of the big three credit reporting firms that will give you your credit report and score “free” with paying for monthly monitoring of your credit reports. There are several more sinister websites that claim to give a free credit report, but nothing happens when you entire your personal information. Well, nothing to your web browser at least. Criminals probably have your personal information (including SSN) and are adding it to their database.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that you are allowed one free credit report per year from each of the three major credit bureaus. This Federal legislation was made necessary not only by the raise in identity theft, but by the refusal of the credit bureaus to give people access to their credit reports without paying a fee. The bill also entitles you to a credit report used by any lending institution that decides not to loan you money based upon the contents of a credit report.

But how to get that credit report? The Federal Trade Commission has a website devoted to information on getting those annual reports. It also set up the only website through which someone can get a truly free credit report from the agencies: http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

I suggest setting up reminders every four months to get a report from one of the agencies. Most credit items are reported to all three agencies, so your reports should basically be the same. This way, you can monitor your credit report every four months rather than once per year. If you are married, most credit items are jointly held and you can pick two different agencies every four months to monitor your credit reports even more closely.

Unfortunately, monitoring your credit reports are the most effective way to guard against identity theft. I say that’s unfortunate because it’s a lagging indicator of identity theft, you only know your identity is stolen after it happens. But it’s the only free way to see if someone is using your good name to get rich quick.