By now you probably know that it's a good idea to check your credit reports periodically to sniff for identity thieves and mistakes that could ruin your credit and ravage your pocketbook.

	Reading your credit report Here are some tips for digging through the muck of credit reports: Verify that your personal data is correct.    Check your name, address, birth date, current employer and Social Security number, if it's included. Small mistakes can have big consequences. If you are listed as James O. Smith, but your name is James E. Smith, you could be turned down for a loan. If your employment data is old, a prospective employer could think you are lying about where you work. Make sure your payment history and credit card and other balances are correct.    Some accounts may be mistakenly flagged delinquent or in collections. Also look for unfamiliar accounts or outstanding debts that aren't yours, which could signal an ID thief on a buying spree.    "If you've never gone to Sears and all of a sudden you have a Sears credit card, that's a red flag," said Pam Dixon, director of the World Privacy Forum, a consumer education and research group in San Diego. Check the "inquiries" section for signs of ID thieves knocking.    This category tells you who has been looking at your credit history. "If you have a lot of inquiries that you aren't familiar with, someone could be out there trying to get credit in your name," said Beth Givens, director at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy group in San Diego.    Don't be concerned about numerous inquiries you may not recognize that are from creditors who have pulled your report in order to extend "preapproved" credit offers, she said. These inquiries will be listed separately. Review the public records section.    It's here that you will find bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens and judgments against you. Make sure they are all yours. The section will be missing if there isn't anything to report. Be sure ancient black marks are expunged.    Most negative information can remain on your credit report for seven years. Bankruptcies can stick around for 10 years. If you spot something older, have it removed. Report errors or suspicious accounts to the credit agency and the creditor immediately, both by phone and in writing.    Your credit report will include instructions for filing your dispute. Credit companies must investigate your claims, generally within 30 days, unless they consider your dispute "frivolous," the FTC says. Follow up to make sure errors are corrected. Consider ordering free "specialty" reports.    In addition to reports from the three major credit bureaus, consumers have the right to free reports once a year from nationwide specialty consumer-reporting agencies, such as the Medical Information Bureau and ChoicePoint, two of the largest. The medical bureau (www.mib.com; 1-866-692-6901) compiles medical history reports for life, health, long-term care and disability insurers. ChoicePoint (www.choicetrust.com; 1-866-312-8076) tells insurers about claims you have made against your homeowner's or automobile insurance. ChoicePoint also provides employment history reports (1-866-312-8075) and tenant history reports (1-877-448-5732). Where to turn For more information on ordering, reading and correcting mistakes on your credit reports visit ftc.gov and consumersunion.org. If you have trouble getting free credit reports or think you've been tricked into paying for extra services, contact the Federal Trade Commission toll free at 1-877-382-4357 (1-877-FTC-HELP). If you receive an e-mail offering you a free annual credit report, ignore it and forward it to the FTC's database of deceptive spam at spam@uce.gov. For information about "specialty" reports and when you should order them, try fact sheet 6(b) from the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse at privacyrights.org.

But until now, except in special cases, Pennsylvanians had to pay to see their reports.

That changes Thursday, when a federal law kicks in entitling consumers in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., and 13 other eastern states to get free copies of their reports once a year from each of the three main credit bureaus -- Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.

The new law, which started to be phased in across the country last December, is aimed at giving consumers a better shot at battling identity theft, an insidious crime in which crooks run up big bills in your name. Often a victim's first hint of a problem is a posse of bill collectors at the door.

Straightening out the mess can take years.

Consumer groups are urging everyone to take advantage of the new law by closely reviewing your credit report and immediately acting on errors.

In addition to catching ID thieves, keeping tabs on your credit report could spot errors that can wreak havoc on your financial life, causing you to be unfairly rejected for a mortgage, to pay higher insurance rates or even lose out on a new job.

At the same time, experts warn that the system set up to distribute the free reports could itself put consumers' personal information at risk. Interpreting the reports won't be a breeze, either, they say.

You'll face the first set of potential pitfalls ordering your reports.

The free reports from the three credit bureaus are available at an official, centralized Web site, www.annualcreditreport.com.

Trouble is, a slew of "impostor" sites have cropped up with similar Web addresses. Many of them are run by the credit bureaus themselves and are designed to reel in consumers and dupe them into buying expensive credit-monitoring services or other products.

Other impostor sites are outright scams, set up by thieves to capture consumers' sensitive personal data such as Social Security numbers or birth dates.

The Federal Trade Commission has sent letters to more than 130 look-alike Web sites warning the impostors that attempts to mislead the public are illegal. Two weeks ago, Experian agreed to settle complaints that it deceptively marketed free credit reports through two affiliated sites, freecreditreport.com and consumerinfo.com, by failing to adequately disclose that consumers would automatically be signed up for a credit-monitoring service and charged $79.95 if they didn't cancel within 30 days.

Be suspicious if you are asked for your credit card number to process your free report. Chances are you have landed at an impostor site.

But even the authorized Web site has been criticized as confusing.

"The credit bureaus throw a lot of ads at you about their fee-based services," said Beth Givens, director at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a consumer advocacy group in San Diego. "We've talked to people who have inadvertently signed up for expensive credit-monitoring services when they only meant to get their free report."

Consumer groups generally have a dim view of credit-monitoring services, which can cost $10 to $15 a month or more, especially since consumers now can do their own monitoring for free.

To avoid the potential minefield of ordering free credit reports online, consumer advocates recommend ordering by phone (1-877-322-8228) or by printing out the request form from the FTC's Web page, www.ftc.gov/freereports, and mailing it to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, Ga., 30348-5281.

Consumers "don't need to be afraid" to order online, but they should be cautious about getting to the right place, said Sandra Farrington, staff attorney at the FTC.

If you decide to go online, be certain you haven't misspelled the official Web site: even one letter off and you could be in for a costly detour. Or you can use the link to the authorized site from the FTC's Web page.

Any e-mail solicitations you may get offering free credit reports likely are a scam, the FTC says. "The credit bureaus won't be sending you e-mail," Farrington said.

One advantage to ordering online is that you get immediate access to your reports. Orders by phone or mail are supposed to be processed within 15 days.

In the first few weeks after the law kicks in, however, there also could be delays ordering online. When the program was first rolled out elsewhere, a crush of orders crashed the system, said Pam Dixon, director of the World Privacy Forum, a consumer education and research group in San Diego.

When ordering your reports, you will be asked for your name, address, Social Security number and date of birth to confirm your identity. You also may be asked for information only you would know, such as the amount of your monthly mortgage or car payment.

"Some people fail their own test," Dixon said. She advises boning up on pertinent information before ordering reports to avoid delays.

You can order all three credit bureau reports at once or spread them out over the course of the year. Staggering allows you to stay on top of changes that could be damaging to your credit.

But if you are in the market for a loan or anything else that could involve a financial background check, such as a job or an apartment, then order all three reports together to look for errors. Each bureau could have different information on you.

The new law doesn't entitle you to a free credit score --separate from a credit report --that lenders use to help judge creditworthiness. Most credit scores cost about $5.

"Buy your score only if you are in the market for credit," said Givens, of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. "Don't buy it if you're just curious."

Consumer groups generally advise getting what is known as a FICO score, computed by Fair Isaac Corp., which is the score most creditors rely on. But the credit bureaus may try to sell you their own version instead, warned Beth McConnell, director of the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) in Philadelphia.

When ordering your free reports, ask that only the last four digits of your Social Security number be displayed to protect that key information from ID thieves.

Also consider having the reports mailed to a P.O. box or private mailbox that is locked.

"I would never have a credit report mailed to our neighborhood because mailboxes are regularly rifled through," Dixon, of the World Privacy Forum, said.

Once you get your report, you'll need to know how to read it. That could be troublesome.

"Credit reports are not simple documents to decipher, but it's important to do so," said Susanna Montezemolo, a policy analyst with Consumer's Union, publisher of Consumer Reports magazine.

The U.S. PIRG in Washington, D.C., released a study last year that found one in four credit reports contains serious enough errors to cause consumers to be denied credit.

You should fix mistakes and investigate anything that looks fishy, such as credit card accounts or lines of credit that you don't recognize.

And when you're finished going through the report, take a deep breath.

"If you've never seen a credit report before, it's usually a rather jaw-dropping experience," Dixon said.

"You don't realize how closely your finances are being tracked. But it's better to know."