Check your rating

The kids are back at school. The summer holidays are over.

It's time to take a deep breath and check the finances are either as bad as you thought or worse.

The one thing that many people forget to do is check their credit report. They fly off onto the phone and get a consolidation loan because....well Carol Vordeman said so.

The big problem is that you need to know your credit position first. And this applies to any time you are applying for credit of any sort. Checking your credit position involves obtaining your credit report from one of the main credit reference agencies such as Experian or Equifax.

Both firms offer an online service where you can download your report for free if you subscribe to the trial offer (many people do this just to get a free report and then cancel within the time trial period.....but we didn't suggest this!)

Experians report is called Credit Expert and can be accessed directly here. Experian are the largest credit agency and most lenders seem to use them.

Equifax are a smaller agency but some of the big banks use them instead or as well as. Their product is Credit Watch Gold and can be accessed here.

You can order by post and it costs £2.

Reading your file

You are looking for accurate information to make sure your details are correct and you have not suffered from ID theft without you knowing. Look for applications for credit or accounts your have not opened. Both firms offer assistance and advice to help with these situations.

If your file is showing incorrect data it might jeopardise your attempt to get credit. You could get turned down and then find it increasling harder to get credit.

Debt and your credit reports

From a debt point of view, if you get your credit file we can look at it and use it to decide on the best solution for you to get out of debt. It may be a loan, it may be debt management or it may just be some good old fashioned advice....which happens to be free.