To get the best lines of credit, you should make it a point annually to check your credit history online. That way, you can be sure that there are no mistakes blemishing your record, fraudulent uses of your credit due to identity theft, or any other problems associated with your credit that you would not otherwise be aware of. Thanks to federal law, every U.S. citizen is entitled to a free credit report each year through each of the three national credit reporting companies: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. That means that you can get 3 credit reports each year, one from each company.

Place That Order

To order your free credit report, you can visit each individual company's site. You will start by indicating your state of residence, territory, or military station. You will need to provide your full name, date of birth, social security number and current home address. If you have moved within the past two years, you will also need to provide your last address. You will need to provide a functioning email address before providing other points of information. If you are concerned about identity theft, you can take additional precautions:

Request that only the last four digits of your social security number show up on the credit report.

Avoid ordering your credit history report on a public computer.

If you must use a public computer, be sure to stay at the computer at all times that your personal information is available on it, and to keep others from peering at it.

When you are done with the computer, erase all of the temporary Internet files and browsing history. In Internet Explorer, this can be done by selecting Tools and then clicking on Internet Options. In the window that pops up, under the General tab, select “Delete files,” “Delete Cookies,” and “Clear History.” In Firefox, go to Tools and click on Clear Private Data, check all the boxes and hit OK.

After you've checked your credit history online, you will have access to all of the information that commercial groups will see if they request your credit report. You will also have additional information that they will not have, such as medically sensitive data and pre-qualification checks.