Good Financial Reads: Built Good Credit (and How to Check your Credit Score)

Your credit score impacts many parts of your life – interest rates on loans, credit card applications, and more. 

Unfortunately, how to build a good credit score is often counterintuitive.

For example, did you know closing an old account could cause your credit score to drop? 

With so much personal information stored online these days, identity theft has become a big issue for Americans. Regrettably, the current pandemic has opened up a new way for fraudsters to use stolen identities. What are they doing and how can you check your credit reports to help spot trouble? We have also recently explained the process of “How to Freeze My Credit?” on a video tutorial you can watch to further protect yourself!

Have you heard of or been affected by the recent increase in fraud lately? Especially, here in Illinois there has been a large increase of fraudulent unemployment claims. There are a number of things you can do to protect yourself from falling victim. You could obtain your credit report and review it to make sure there aren’t already any fraudulent actions. Then, to really stop people from making fraudulent transactions you can freeze your credit. This keeps anyone from accessing your credit so you can’t get new debt or apply for things that depend on your credit.