More Than 1 in 3 Americans Have Never Checked Any of Their Credit Reports

NEW YORK, May 4, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Over one-third of American adults (35%) report that they have never reviewed any of their credit reports and another 14% say they typically go more than a year between checks, according to a new study by Bankrate.com RATE. 44% of senior citizens and 41% of millennials have never checked any of their credit reports. Bankrate recommends checking a credit report at least three times each year.

In an effort to help consumers monitor and protect their credit, Bankrate.com has launched myBankrate™. The new service offers a truly free credit score and credit report (both updated monthly), as well as other no-cost financial assessment tools to help people make better informed financial decisions. myBankrate™ is available at:

http://my.bankrate.com

Credit reports are important documents that lenders, employers, landlords, utility companies and others use to measure financial responsibility. Credit reports detail a person's credit history, including payment records, available credit and delinquencies. A credit score is a three-digit number generated using information from an individual's credit report. Credit scores help determine loan qualifications, interest rates and credit limits. Frequent credit monitoring can protect consumers against identity theft and errors (the Federal Trade Commission estimates that credit report errors affect tens of millions of Americans).

"Monitoring your credit goes well beyond scanning a three-digit number," said Jeanine Skowronski, credit card analyst at Bankrate.com. "Americans need to thoroughly review their credit reports for errors or signs of fraud. They also need to understand what factors, like missed payments or high debt to available credit ratios, are driving their credit score in order to improve it. A good credit score will help you, among other things, qualify for the best rates on loans."

At least the new Bankrate.com survey found not all consumers are lagging behind. About half of Americans (48%) have reviewed at least one of their credit reports within the past year. Those between the ages of 30 and 49 were the most likely to do so. One in four Americans review their credit reports more than once a year.

To see the full survey results, go to: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/consumer-index/money-pulse-0504.aspx.

Methodology

The PSRAI April 2015 Omnibus Week 3 obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults living in the continental United States. Telephone interviews were conducted by landline (500) and cell phone (500, including 284 without a landline phone). The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI). Interviews were done in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from April 16 to 19, 2015. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is +/- 3.7 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com, InsuranceQuotes.com and Caring.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, Insweb.com, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of over 600 local markets, Bankrate generates rate tables in all 50 U.S. states. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 100 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:
Kayleen Yates
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
kyates@bankrate.com 
(917) 368-8677

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SOURCE Bankrate