By KWMU
St. Louis, MO – Starting today (Tuesday), people in Missouri, Illinois, and 10 other Midwestern states can see their credit report for free.
The government is rolling out the service in four stages; people in western states have already had access to their reports since December.
It's part of an effort to combat identity theft by letting people get one report every 12 months from each of the three main credit agencies in the country. The theory goes that seeing a credit report allows people to identify potentially incorrect or unauthorized accounts that someone else might have opened.
The reports can be ordered at annualcreditreport.com.