Credit Report Basics - What Affects Your Credit Report?
The mention of 'credit report' sends chills down the spine of people who haven't been responsible as far as managing their financials are concerned. For these people a credit report is exactly what they need to begin with. Lenders often look at these reports when you are looking for a new loan or even opening up a credit card account. This will give them an idea of how much risk is involved in lending you money.
In the United States these reports are maintained by three major reporting agencies:
1) Experian: PO Box 2002, Allen TX 75013, www.experian.com
2) Equifax: PO Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374; www.equifax.com
3) TransUnion: PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022; www.transunion.com
These reports list your financial history including credit cards, home loans, car loans and any other debt you have. The key facts that are recorded are whether you made any late payments, how many times you were late, whether they were 30-days past the due date, 60-days or more. These reports also contain your phone number, social security, current and old addresses.
This information is available to qualified lenders - mortgage lenders, banks, credit card issuing companies and other entities if they required during legal proceedings etc. This can be a scary proposition considering that these reports might have erroneous information.
These sometimes list inactive loans, show credit accounts that are open even though they are cancelled and others. At times, they don't list payments that have been made to overdue amounts or other debts that have been paid off. These discrepancies exist even though these companies do their best to maintain up-to-date information.
This is exactly why it is your responsibility to review these reports thoroughly. Request copies from the 3 agencies mentioned above, note any errors, find proof via documentation and send these documents along to the agencies to fix the entries.
Fortunately due to a recent law being passed, you can obtain one copy free of charge from the credit reporting agencies. You will find several websites which will let you do this. One such website is annualcreditreport.com.
If you are struggling under a mountain of debt, your first step to become debt-free is to get your credit report. Getting to know your past spending habits is the best way to start working on that plan.
After having a look at your history, notice any debts that are overdue. These should be cleared up as fast as you can. Often the recommended approach is to pay off the smallest amounts first. The psychology behind this is that you will get more satisfaction from these mini-successes and this momentum will help you build confidence of working towards the bigger goal of being totally debt-free.
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credit report basics
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Most people tend to find out about their credit report when they apply for loans or look to get a line of credit. These people might want to know the credit report basics prior to looking into any of these types of loans or lines of credit but don't. Every credit agency uses the basic formulas to determine your credit worthiness so don't you think you should know how your credit report basics should be looked at.
You may not realize just how easy it is to get your credit report, especially when you see all these companies online wanting to charge you for them. However, the good news is that you can receive your credit report free of charge.
Payments and default payments on your credit card are reflected on a single report called the credit report. Other credit accounts and loan defaults are also contained in such a report.
While the FCRA has made a positive impact on the credit reporting system, there are still a number of fundamental flaws in how your credit reports are constructed and how your credit scores are calculated. These flaws result in an unfair credit system that more often than not, punishes the consumer and rewards lenders.
Definitely, you don't like to be caught in making late payments with regards to your loans or credit cards and affect your own credit score and report not only if you have to basically really have to. However, what if it happens that you just cannot really avoid that predicament?
There are some basics that you should know when trying to read a credit report.
Credit Report FAQ
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