Car Loan Tips: How to Check Your Credit Report

Shopping for a car has changed in the last year, because the lenders are thoroughly looking at a persons' credit before loaning money. This has led to some people being refused credit for a car even though there may only be seemingly minor delinquencies on their credit report.
To avoid any potentially embarrassing situations when applying for credit you must know ahead of time what your credit score is. To know your credit score you must first have a your credit report on hand.
In Canada, there are two major credit reporting agencies - Equifax and Transunion, and both have credit reports for every individual with credit. Once you get to their website there are fairly obvious links to acquire your credit report, or you can visit other sites to get it as well. Just make sure the site is legitimate. Although you will pay a bit to get your credit report that expense will may be recouped with lower rates later.
First, slowly look over the facts reported to see if the data is accurate. Because of the large numbers of transactions that are reported everyday it is not uncommon for there to be errors. If there is, simply get in touch with the company responsible and set the error straight. Mistakes aren't exactly unheard of, and because of that there are systems already in place to correct them.
Then it is time for you to sit down and calculate you credit score. You should know that you credit score is calculated differently at different lenders due to different weighting on the various factors in your credit report, and hence you credit score will fluctuate a little. We'll use the FICO score, a very popular credit score used by many lenders. Simply search Google for "fico score calculator" and you will get a hold of one.
Now that you have your score, what are you going to do with it? If you have a copy of your credit report, you can go to dealerships and see what they can do for you.  People usually just go and see if they can get the loan, but every time you apply for credit you credit score drops a bit, and that can be a problem for people on the edge.
Your credit score is lowered because people who try to get credit all over town are usually the ones least likely to pay it back . A bunch of requests put in over a short time period means that person couldn't get approved anywhere, and therefore they must have pretty bad credit. Though basic, that's exactly how it works.
So once you have your facts straight, you can go start looking for cars without getting you credit score dinged. This will help dealers determine what the terms of your loan will be, as they have concrete evidence. You can then shop around a bit to see who gets the best terms for you.  
But you should also know that the exact terms may differ slightly from how it was originally drawn up.  Remember credit score is an interpretation of the credit report, and different lenders will interpret it differently.  Rates also change, so if you wait a day or two before signing that can also play a role. But they won't be that far off.  
Keeping your financial matters in order always helps, so take the time to review your credit report before you go out and get your next car loan.