The TransUnion settlement is being offered to an estimated 150 million consumers. Want to know if you're one of them? Well, it's a reasonably safe bet you are. You see, the settlement is being offered to anyone who had an open line of credit anytime from 1987 to May of 2008. Open lines of credit can include student loans, credit cars, auto loans, mortgages - pretty much anything you may have purchased on a credit account or line of credit. So you can see that's just about anybody over the age of 18 from the last twenty years.

TransUnion is offering two options, and regardless of which you choose, you'll have the tools you need to shift your financial destiny and become a more savvy and educated consumer, as well as work towards repairing your credit. The first option is six months of TransUnion's credit monitoring service, free of charge. This will allow you unlimited access to your credit reports and scores, as well as email updates when something changes on your report. The second option gives consumers nine months of the credit monitoring service, as well as access to the scores used in insurance decisions and TransUnion's mortgage simulator, helping consumers to see how their credit scores affect their mortgages.

Imagine that you're looking for a house, and you find one that you absolutely fall in love with. It's within your price range, let's say $175,000. Your scores are okay - not great, but not lousy - and you get a rate of 6.5%, making your monthly payments on a 30-year mortgage somewhere around $1,100. Over next 30 years, you'll end up paying close to $400,000 for your house when you include the $225,000 paid in interest. Now, what if you had great credit and got a rate of 5.5%, just 1% lower than the previous example? On a 30-year mortgage, your payments will be roughly $990, meaning you'll end up paying a little more than $350,000 with only $175,000 of your total payment going towards interest.

Here's where credit repair comes into play. The difference between the total you'll pay in the first example and the total you'll pay in the second is $50,000.

So the question is; would $50,000 change your financial future? The answer for most of us is a clear and resounding "Yes!"

All it takes is a little bit of patience, dedication, and persistence to repair your credit and make the changes in your financial habits that will translate into higher credit scores, and TransUnion has delivered an unprecedented tool for you to use to repair your credit. Using the TransUnion service, you can see the effect of every financial decision you make. Opening a Home Depot card to save 10% on that purchase will have an effect on your credit score. So will paying off that Visa card, or closing it altogether. Which decisions will support you in repairing your credit and becoming financially free? Now you can know immediately the weight and effect of any decision you make, and it's free!