Step 1: Start with Your Credit Report

Because your credit score is based on your credit report, you should begin by ordering your reports from all three credit bureaus and reviewing each one for accuracy.

By federal law, U.S. consumers are entitled to one free credit report from each of the bureaus every year. You can order your reports from the Annual Credit Report Request Service by calling 877-322-8228 or by using its Web site, www.annualcreditreport.com. (If you use the online service, be sure to enter the Web site address correctly. If you mistype even one letter, you could wind up at the wrong site. In fact, be careful when entering “free credit report” or even “annualcreditreport.com” into a search engine, as sometimes the first results will be from lookalike sites trying to pass themselves off as the federal site.)