Maintaining good credit is important. Not only could get you a better loan rate, but also could affect your rates or approvals for utilities, phone plans, insurance or renting. Knowing what is on your credit report is also a key step to help you catch signs of identity theft early. You are entitled to one free credit report per year from each of the credit reporting agencies (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) from AnnualCreditReport.com.