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What Gets Reported in Your Credit History And What Does Not

What Gets Reported in Your Credit History And What Does Not

A credit report is a document that outlines your financial status, specifically your credit history. The three national reporting agencies, Experian, Trans Union, and Equifax, work independently so it is advisable to know what gets reported in your credit history for an accurate picture.

What Gets Reported in Your Credit History

The credit report contains personal, financial, and public information along with recent requests.

The credit report will provide personal information like your full name, frequently used nicknames and aliases, date of birth, and social security number. It will also reveal your current and past addresses, present and past jobs and if applicable, information about your spouse as well.

Financial information of all your accounts with their opening date and the credit limit is noted in it. These could be accounts with banks, credit card companies, power and telephone companies, and such like. It will also detail your loans like mortgages, student loans, and installment loans with relevant information, such as, payment patterns, a default in payment, debts that are less than seven years old, and so on. Some records will appear permanently. These are salaries above $75,000, any credit transaction, or application for a credit card or insurance beyond $150,000 and unpaid tax liens.

Information from public records particularly those with a financial angle will always appear. These are usually obtained from state and county courts. It will include convictions, arrests, charges, and monetary judgments. They can appear only for seven years. However, under federal law, convictions will appear indefinitely. If you have declared bankruptcy, the same will appear on your credit report for not more than ten years.

Certain records do not appear. Debt records more than seven years old and bankruptcy records more than ten years old cannot be given in a credit report. Your age, marital status, and race cannot appear if a current or prospective employer asks for it. Medical records can appear only with your express permission. Any information that has been erased from the records cannot be put back again.

Thus a credit report will help a person or organization make an informed judgment before entering into any transaction or deal with you. Talk to us today for a seamless process in credit reporting.

Understanding Credit Scores and Repairs

Understanding Credit Scores and Repairs

If you are applying for a mortgage, you’re going to have to deal with credit scores. Therefore, understanding credit scores and methods for improving them is a must.

Credit Report

Step one in the process is making sure that you have a current copy of your credit report. Congress recently amended the Fair Credit Reporting Act so that consumers may now receive one free credit report annually. There are three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Since entries can vary across bureaus, you’ll want to request a free report from each of the three companies. (Go to www.annualcreditreport.com)

Credit Score

It’s also imperative to know just what a good credit score is. Most A-Paper scores typically begin around 680, although this number may differ slightly among lenders. Don’t despair if you come up shy, there is always room for improvement. Increasing your score just 5 points can save a significant amount of money. For example, if your score is 698 and you increase it to 703, then you could save yourself thousands of dollars over time as a result of a slight improvement to your loan’s interest rate.

While credit repair is necessary for some, it is not the panacea to increase your credit score. Even if you have stellar credit, you can enhance your score through these steps:

1. Evenly distribute your credit card debt to change the ratio of debt to available credit. Let’s say you have a credit score of 665. If you have debt on only one card, and four additional credit cards with zero balances, evenly distributing the debt of the first card could move you closer, and possibly into, that ideal bracket.

2. Keep your existing accounts open and active. The average consumer is usually anxious to close credit card accounts that have zero balances, but doing this can cause them to lose the benefits of long-term credit history and increase their ratio of debt-to-available credit. The bottom line is don’t close those old accounts!

3. Keep credit inquiries to a minimum. Each inquiry into your credit history can influence your score anywhere from 2-50 points. When it comes to mortgage and auto loans, even though you’re only looking for one loan, multiple lenders may request your credit report. To compensate for this, the score counts multiple auto or mortgage inquiries in any 14-day period as just one inquiry, so try and stay within that time frame.

Remember, credit scores do not instantly get better. Improving them requires time and diligent effort on your part, so it’s a good idea to start at least three to six months prior to submitting your application for home financing.

If credit repair is what you need, you can either begin the process yourself or seek out a repair service. If you decide to make your own improvements, visit as many websites as possible to get information regarding credit laws and consumer rights. Diligently search through them and educate yourself to ensure that you don’t sustain any self-inflicted wounds. A good place to start would be the Federal Trade Commission’s website, which contains a plethora of helpful literature.

If you’re facing severe or complicated credit issues, then you’ll probably want to enlist the assistance of a professional credit repair company. Before you do, be sure to familiarize yourself with the FTC’s regulations on credit repair. With over 1100 credit repair companies to choose from, it’s important to be certain you are dealing with a reputable firm. Examine the FTC’s information on fraudulent practices to avoid falling victim to credit repair scams.

Albeit, addressing credit issues can be uncomfortable. By taking these steps now, however, you’ll be that much closer to obtaining the home of your dreams.

Two Ways To Begin Repairing Your Credit

Two Ways To Begin Repairing Your Credit

Credit is a necessary tool for many people’s day-to-day lives. Good credit allows for many advantages that we sometimes take for granted: credit cards, the ability to rent an apartment, qualifying for financing, or a car loan, and that’s just the beginning. If you fall behind in payments towards a creditor, each incident will be reported to your credit bureau, end up reflecting badly in your credit rating, and make the credit-dependent activities above difficult If not impossible. If you have a poor credit rating, repairing your credit should begin as soon as possible.

Credit repair is not a quick process and requires you to build a better rating over time. Here are some steps to get you started:

1. Add Accounts to your Credit Report.

If you apply for credit and are denied, you should immediately get a copy of your credit report from the credit bureau who denied you. When you receive the report, examine it closely for any errors. If the report reflects no errors, you may realize that the only reason your credit rating is “poor,” is because you don’t have enough credit history to give you a good rating.

Some types of credit, like gas cards or department store credit cards, may not be tracked by credit bureaus. However, as long as the credit bureau can verify that the account is legitimate, most credit bureaus can add it to your account for a fee. By adding these accounts to your credit report, and paying them regularly, you can begin to establish a better credit rating.

2. Seek Credit Counseling.

Once you’re mired in debt, bad credit can become a vicious circle that it’s difficult to escape from. If you see yourself being drawn into the bad credit-cycle, consider credit counseling. Not to be confused with credit repair companies, a credit counselor is usually a non-profit service that offers advice and guidance for individuals trying to repair their credit. Credit repair companies operate for-profit and sometimes have dubious ethics. They generally charge fees for doing things that with a little bit of knowledge, you can easily do of yourself. A good credit counselor helps you create a realistic budget – and stick to it – as well as make practical decisions in regards to your current credit situation.

By adding accounts already in good standing to your credit report and seeking help from a credit counselor if necessary, you will begin to make headway in the credit repair process. It is important to remember that a good credit rating takes a long time to build, but only a very short time to damage. There is no quick-fix for bad credit: you will have to work on building your credit rating up, sometimes from scratch. Avoid credit repair companies that falsely promise quick and easy solutions for a fee, and instead try to make long-term changes to your budget and spending habits. Follow these steps, give it time, and you will be successful in repairing your credit.

Need more guidance in repairing your credit? Let us work together and figure out the things you need for you to achieve that financial freedom you’ve been dreaming of.

Why is It Necessary to Do Credit Report Repair?

Why is It Necessary to Do Credit Report Repair?

Is it necessary to do credit report repair?

Credit report repair will surely help you to improve your credit report and thereby increase your credit score. It is a process that eliminates the negative remarks and gives you a good credit report. There are many people who are unaware of repairing their credit reports and thereby create an obstacle to getting credit extension. You can even repair your credit report timely or by checking it periodically.

With the help of a good credit report, you can have credit flexibility through which you can get credit at a low-interest rate. One should not get tired of bad credit report but seek suitable measures to improve it. A self-credit repair can be a difficult task but with the help of many online services, one can easily repair it by oneself. Below are a few tips, which can help you to repair your credit report.

• Order Credit Report

This is your first step in which you must order the credit report from all the credit bureaus. Don’t be surprised to see different credit report ratings as different credit bureau have different ways to maintain a credit report.

• Check Credit Report

In this step, you must check your report carefully and slowly. It is quite general to find at least one error in one of the three reports.

• Document and Dispute Strategy

Any mistake in your credit report must be informed to the credit bureau. Finding the reason behind any error is equally important, as you understand your credit report. Maintain up to date copy of each and every document that can be used as future reference.

• Dissolve the Debts

Clear your debt payments if you are liable for it. This step is of vital importance, which can help you to improve your credit report rating.

Other Information

If you have unnecessary accounts then close it instantly. Remember Zero balance account is also taken into consideration. Verify each and every account that exists.

Top 10 Ways To Repair Your Credit Score

Top 10 Ways To Repair Your Credit Score

You must never underestimate the value of having good credit. You will definitely need to repair your credit score so you are prepared if you want to use it in the future. For example, if you are a student, you’ll need to borrow a certain amount using a student loan in order to attend school. At this point, your credit history will definitely matter and will have a big impact on getting you the funds that you need.

If you are applying for a student loan, your creditor or the lending institution will probably request a copy of your credit report and the credit score, which comes from an authorized credit-reporting agency. This will help identify your credit criteria and will determine if you are qualified for a loan. And if you are, your credit score will influence what interest rate you will be paying for the funds.

You must be able to demonstrate good credit to be approved by most of the private student loans. This also applies to the loans you might need such as auto loans, business loans, and mortgages.

Here’s what you can do to keep your credit score high and your credit good.

1. Make your payments prompt and timely. Make sure that you don’t miss any deadline.

2. Pay the minimum monthly payments. This will repair your credit score remarkably.

3. Limit the number of credit card accounts you have open at any one time.

4. Maintain available credit on your open accounts.

5. Request a copy of your credit report at least once a year from each of the three national credit-reporting agencies.

6. Check your reports for errors. You must clear up any errors that do appear in your report right away, time is critical in this.

7. Don’t open multiple accounts all at one time, especially if your credit history is not good. This tends to look a bit risky to lenders because you are taking on a good deal of possible debt, all at once.

8. Remember that you must know how to prioritize your needs. Leave those credit cards that are not needed aside for a while. Then after you have recovered from all the other debts, you can add these cards back into your wallet. The new accounts will lower the average age of your account and this is something that counts toward your FICO score.

9. Don’t open accounts that are not necessary. They will just be a burden. Even if you have a very high income, you can still encounter some difficulties.

10. Make sure that you don’t close accounts with the thought that the account will be removed from your record. That will not help at all. Closing accounts can sometimes even hurt your score.