Most people only review their credit reports when they want to know their credit score so they can take out a loan or mortgage. But everyone should keep track of their credit reports on a regular basis for a number of reasons.

The biggest reason is to prevent identity theft. By reviewing your credit report, you can make sure no other accounts which are not yours have been added to your name, and there are no unauthorized transactions on your active accounts. New accounts that have been opened in your name without your knowledge is the first sign of someone stealing your identity, and that can have disastrous results as you will be responsible for all the debts held in your name. You can also monitor your spending and make sure you are not accumulating debt in any of your accounts.

Another reason is to prevent (or fix) errors on your credit report, which can greatly affect your financial future. Credit bureaus contain information that is transcribed from your records by people, not machines. Since those doing the job of transcribing your information are human, sometimes errors are made. For example, maybe the person who transcribed your report wrote $2,000 instead of $20,000, which in would cause a major mistake on your report.

Finally, you want to make sure your credit information is complete in all three credit bureaus. This is especially important since the three main credit bureaus in the US, namely Experian, Equifax (NYSE:EFX) and TransUnion, don’t share information. So if you notice that one or even two of the credit bureaus are missing some information that was stated in the report from another bureau, be sure to report it immediately in order for the report to be accurate.