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[H1141]How To Get Credit Reports

by Joe Goertz, Joe

In this country, there are three major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. They offer information to lenders about a person’s credit score. The lower your credit score, the less likely you are to get credit. Each credit report comes with “score reason codes” to explain why your credit score is where it is.

It is up to you to know what is on your credit report and keep the data up to date. You might have paid your bills on time, but your credit report may show that your credit is less than perfect. You may have had a credit dispute with a merchant that was corrected, but not shown on your report. You may have a bankruptcy that was not properly recorded. You may also have experienced credit fraud.

You can fix your credit profile. You can make sure that you aren’t carrying more debt than is reasonable for your income level. Avoid late and non payments. Make sure that there are no judgments or liens against you. You should also avoid co-signing loans because they are considered your financial liability. If the co-signer defaults, it will be your responsibility to replay the loan. You should avoid unnecessary checks of your credit. Each credit inquiry is recorded and remains on the books for two years. Lenders seeing too many inquiries may think that you are unable to support your current debt and are looking for more credit to support it. Having excessive unused credit is not good. A lender will check to see how much credit you actually have. If you have too much, the lender might worry that you will use up all your credit in a spending spree after you secure a new loan or mortgage.

It’s important to see your credit score and keep it up to date. Most lenders are concerned about your credit activities during the past year or two. You want to make sure the report is accurate for this period and contains no errors. Depending on how inaccurate your credit report is, you may not be given additional credit. This is especially crucial if you are applying for a mortgage. It is not impossible to get a mortgage with less than a perfect credit report, but the amount of the loan and the interest on it will be higher if the lender decides you are a risk.

How do you keep your credit report up to date? There are services, such as Equifax, that will provide a credit report to you and advise you on how to make changes. They will usually update you twice a year on your credit history. They may even advise you when you are approaching your credit limit. Under federal law, you are entitled to a free annual credit report from Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. You should go to for more details.

Make sure that when you decide to fix your credit report that you do it the right way. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns consumers to beware of companies that guarantee that they can remove late payments, bankruptcies, or similar information from your credit report. Stay away from companies that charge a lot of money to repair credit, keep asking you to verify information that you have previously verified, refuse to give you their address or push you to make a decision immediately.

If you are interested in your credit, you'll eventually come upon the idea of ordering your credit report. That's a great idea, but there's some information you should know first. The first thing you need to learn is that there are 3 major credit reporting agencies (We'll call them CRAs from here out) and they are: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian, in no particular
order of importance. Each one of these companies is largely responsible for your credit and whether your credit applications are approved or not, depending on the type of credit you desire. You want to have an excellent record with all three of the major CRAs.

Your credit report is made up of all the information that has been collected on you over the years concering how you open and maintain credit accounts. A credit report will have basic information such as your name and address, your social security nuber, and any jobs you've reported to companies you applied for credit with. They also have a detailed record of your payment history, as reported by any companies hat you've dealt with over the years. Your account history, your age,
employement, and the like are entered into an algorhythm, which determines a "credit score". This score is extremely important to you as a consumer, because companies use this score to determine if you're credit worthy, and at what rate you'll pay interest. More companies than ever rely on credit scores, and don't even have human loan managers look at credit
applications by individuals with low credit scores.

Credit scoring has been widespread since the late 1970s. Invented in 1956 by Bill Fair and Earl Isaac, credit scoring was conceived as an impartial formula that could generally guess the outcome of lending money to an individual. For better or for worse, the credit world has embraced the concept of scoring with both arms, and there is no end in sight. Your credit is
scored basically on these principles:

1) Your payment history
2) How long you have had a credit history
3) Amount you owe
4) How recently you've applied for credit
5) The types of credit you have

These are the most important scoring factors, but there are many more. Credit scores take into account all data found in your credit reports, and for that reason it's abundantly important that you check your credit score with all three of the CRAs and make sure the report is entirely accurate. Any inaccuracies can hurt your credit score, so you will need to follow the dispute process with each of the individual companies, and follow it to the letter. Each credit reporting agency will have its own credit report and credit score. You need to examine and understand the legend on each report to understand the differences, if any, between the three. Different companies use different CRAs to pull credit reports, so any agency that has a low score for you can end with you being denied credit.

If you haven't ordered your credit report in a while, don't be surprised to find erroneous information on it. With a bit of patience you can get the info removed or corrected. If you plan a major purchase, especially a car or home, you should look at all 3 of your credit reports as soon as possible, and before you apply. This way you can dispute and correct information,
before you finalize your deal. This could save you some unhappy moments in the end. Good luck with ordering your reports.

Article Source : Pg. 18

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Both Joe Goertz & Darren Mclaughlin are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Joe Goertz has sinced written about articles on various topics from Cruises, Home Management and Home Improvement. Read more Finances related articles at: . Joe Goertz's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.

Darren Mclaughlin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Best Mutual Funds, Cardio Training and Mobile Phone Reviews. For information about please visit the. Darren Mclaughlin's top article generates over 49500 views. to your Favourites.