Protect yourself with a free credit report

I was watching "The Today Show" on NBC this morning, and Suze Orman was on talking about how the credit crisis is starting to affect not just people with mortgages but those with credit cards as well.

Banks are wanting to reduce their risk by canceling accounts or lowering people's limits. This can then lower people's credit scores because it impacts their debt-to-credit ratio.

This got me thinking that now is a great time to get a free credit report. People are entitled to a free credit report every 12 months from each of the three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

Monitoring your credit report is a good way to make sure you haven't been a victim of identity theft, and that there aren't any errors in your credit history that could be negatively impacting your interest rates.