It’s not an official holiday, but I’m starting it. Since I’m allowed to ask for a free copy of my credit report once per year (or any time I’ve been denied credit), I’m going to do it every March 15th.

I’m not worried about anything in particular, but identity theft has started to become more common place. I even know someone that this happened to and the results weren’t pretty. Furthermore, I just want to make sure that the information is current, as in the past couple of years I’ve bought and sold a house, and paid off loans.

So, I encourage everyone to request a copy of their credit report on March 15th (or thereabouts), and make sure everything is on the level.

In Canada, there are two places to send a request to:

TransUnion - Send a letter with your information
Equifax - Fill out the form

This report from the Canadian privacy commissioner details a case that shows some of the rights that Canadians have about access to the information that banks use to make decisions about them.

Apologies to the non-Canadians in the crowd, if someone has information on the policies in other countries please let me know or post it and send a trackback.