How to do your own background check for as little as $20

While it is becoming more common to get your credit reports from the three major reporting agencies every year, nearly half of the respondents of a recent survey by Zendough had either never checked their report or had not checked it in the past year. It's likely that an even greater number of consumers are forgetting the wealth of information stored about their life that is also used by employers, landlords, banks, insurance agencies and others to make decisions that affect their life.

The only way to know that there is something potentially damaging in the information collected by companies is to do a background check on yourself; a process The Consumerist has made easier by collecting links and phone numbers for requesting information from 30 different agencies and organizations.