The three main credit reporting agencies in the U.S. have struck a multistate settlement agreement that requires them to move more quickly to fix disputed information on credit reports, wait longer before adding items and more carefully scrutinize certain data they're furnished by collection agencies and others.
This may sound surprising, but more than one in three Americans have never checked their credit reports and 14 percent say they typically go more than a year between checks, according to a survey by Bankrate.com.