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Through the years of personally monitoring my credit history (not paying a third party), I've learned: 1) I'm still learning new things, 2) The credit monitoring processes have become easier, and 3) A lot of my peers do not know about the free ways to monitor and protect credit scores, reports, and pre-screens. So, I'm listing the sites and steps that I've been using to personally manage my credit.

Step 1: Access free credit reports (NOT score) every three months via https://www.annualcreditreport.com and https://www.innovis.com. The three major credit bureaus--Equifax, Experian, Transunion--all meet the federal requirement to provide one free credit report via annualcreditreport.com (NOT freecreditreport.com). Unbeknownst to most of us, there's a fourth credit bureau called Innovis, which is equally important to monitor and is also required to provide a free report, but it has to be done through their site. Basically, check one credit report from one bureau every three months, and you have year-round, hands-on, in-detail knowledge of what’s going on with your credit. Make sure to save the reports as PDFs so that they can be printed or accessed past their available dates. This method has informed me of the random payday lenders who’ve looked me up, has brought to my attention an old and forgotten credit card that was still open, and has let me know what counted against my credit from six years ago.

Step 2: Prevent businesses from accessing your credit information for up to five years (or permanently) via https://www.optoutprescreen.com. This site legitimately prevents businesses from accessing your credit reports behind your back, and it stops the flood of credit offers from coming in the mail. The catch is that it works up until you permit someone to check your credit to open up a new line of credit, whether it’s a mortgage, auto loan, or payday loan. Then you have to go back to the site and opt out for another five years.

Step 3: Monitor your FICO score through your checking or credit card accounts every month. As examples, USAA and CHASE offer a free credit score from Experian every month, US Bank offers a free Transunion credit score, and Citi Bank offers Equifax. As an added bonus, the banks' bureaus will give you a brief summary of what is counting for and against you. If your credit is strong enough to have a credit card that reports to each credit bureau, then you are in shape to know exactly how much you fluctuate from month-to-month. It’s also a good idea to just pay for your FICO score once a year to have first-hand record of what’s going on. Lastly, a free annual FICO score can be obtained annually through a Military Financial Educator, which I've utilized only once, so I don't fully know how to go about the process, but I've included a site (https://www.saveandinvest.org/free-credit-score-and-analysis-tool).

Step 4: Register on the national do not call list at https://www.donotcall.gov. This doesn’t necessarily protect credit, but it at least helps against annoying telemarketing.

Overall, the processes are much simpler than even five years ago, and the only difficulty I’ve had is remembering to check my reports in the right month to maintain regularity. I hope this has helped.