Most of us probably know of someone that has had their identity stolen or someone that has had their identity attempted to be stolen. However, what people might not realize is that if you keep a close eye on your credit reports then you can attempt to stem off people stealing your identity. I know that I utilize the free credit reports that are provided each year to see who has been looking at my credit. Here are several benefits that I have found of checking my credit report.

The first benefit that I have found of checking my credit report on a yearly basis is that I am able to see who has been checking my credit out. Now this will give me a good idea as to who all has been looking. I know that one year when I checked my credit report and read through the actual report I noticed that about five different insurance companies had been looking at my credit report yet I did not ask for any new insurance quotes. Now I knew that this wasn't adding up and it ended up that within the next couple of weeks after checking my credit report and seeing them all checking I ended up getting several mass mailings from the insurance companies with rate quotes I did not want or need.

The second benefit is that you can find out if you have any loans that are still on your credit report even though they have been paid off for a long time period. I know that one year when my husband checked his credit report he found that his truck that had been paid off for almost a year was still showing up on his credit report. Now he had to make a couple of phone calls to ensure that it was off of his report, but if he hadn't done a yearly check on his credit report he wouldn't have known that this was on his report.

While people always see the commercial telling them to check their credit reports many still do not. However, checking your credit report is one great way to ensure that you are not becoming a victim of identity theft, you're able to see who all has been checking out your credit reports, and you can ensure that any old debt that has been paid off is cleared off of your report as showing up as a debt.