My younger brother came over yesterday to watch the Eagles/Giants (go Eagles!) and Chargers/Steelers games. During and after the games, our conversations turned to various financial topics. As we talked, I discovered that while he had heard about credit scores, he did not know anything about his credit report. So, I showed him one of my recent reports, explained all the various parts of it, and by the end he was chomping at the bit to see his own report.

He had never pulled his credit report, so we headed over to AnnualCreditReport.com to get a free report. It only took a couple minutes, and it was time well spent because he found a credit line that he didn't remember opening.

I was quite proud of him when I saw his report – clean as a whistle. The only "problem" with it is that his accounts aren't very old, but seeing that he is only in his mid-20s it's not surprising and the only "cure" for that problem is time.

If you're like my brother and haven't ever checked your credit report, or if you haven't checked it in awhile (more than a year), I would suggest you go to AnnualCreditReport.com as well and take a gander at it. Just be sure to click the "No Thanks" buttons for all the "special" offers. (How special can an offer be if everyone gets one?)

Important: Do not confuse AnnualCreditReport.com with FreeCreditReport.com – despite it's name, the second one isn't really free. It's just a free trial of a paid credit monitoring service.