Based on the suggestion from Ramit Sethi’s blog, I decided to go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com to check my credit report. This site allows you to go to each of the 3 credit reporting agencies. Thankfully, the one I went to first was Equifax, which turned out to be the easiest to use and most complete report by far. If I had gone to either the TransUnion or Experian sites first, I would have given up. They just made it too hard to get into (account creation, verifying my personal data).
I did also pay the $7.95 fee to get my credit score — credit report (details of open accounts, balances, payment histories, etc) and credit score (aggregate number in the range of 300-850) are not the same thing. I got a whole lot more out of the credit report (which was free) than the single credit score (which I paid for) — go figure.
I was surprised to see in the credit score that basically every account I’ve opened in my adult life was listed — student loans, credit cards, mortgages, etc. Most of them are paid and closed, so I guess it helps my score to have them listed in my history?