The Large Print Giveth

...and the small print taketh away.


The maxim is even more important to remember when making even the most basic financial decisions.


Keeping an eye on your family's financial health is important in any financial climate, but even more so in the United States' current economic situation.


One easy and basic step in attending to your personal and family finances is obtaining a copy of your credit reports. Besides allowing you to take an objective look at your financial health as current and potential creditors see it, checking your credit report is an important safeguard to identity theft.


Consumers are entitled to one free annual credit report per year from each of the major credit reporting bureaus -- Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax, and to a free credit report (from the agency whose information was used) during a short period of time after having been denied credit due to information found in a credit report.


The official website to request your annual copy of the credit reports is Annualcreditreport.com. Any other website or service will cost consumers money, even if the word "free" is used in the name of the company.


Unfortunately, unscrupulous companies can manipulate even conscientious consumers by leaving out the details.


Most of them will provide the credit reports for "free," but only after the consumer subscribes to a credit-report monitoring service. While there are some advantages to being alerted anytime a change is made to your credit report, obtaining copies of it once per year is something consumers can do on their own.


Although not an outright scam, a credit-monitoring service subscription is a lot like a scholarship search service...charging a fee for something the informed can do for no cost at all.