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On
occasion when a company offers you a free credit report, you may find that it is
an amalgamation of information from the three main credit bureaus. This type
of
report
is far less detailed than an individual report from each bureau and therefore
makes its uses limited.
What
you really want to look for is an online company that condenses all the
information and avoid the companies that are trying to get you to subscribe to a
service by promising you a free report. Always read their policies carefully to
make sure that the free credit report is a legitimate offer. You do not want to
subscribe to a company that is only offering a free credit report in order to
obtain your contact details for spamming (sending unsolicited e-mails) purposes.
Saying
that, there are quite a few of online companies that offer credit reports and
credit scores at no charge. Using these you can be useful for making minor
repairs to your credit report, especially if you happen to be skilled with
computers.
If
you do not qualify for a free credit report an alternative would be to employ a
legitimate online company to access your credit information in order to try and
decrease your credit risk.
If
you do qualify for one free credit report per year. You can get this credit
report through email at www.annualcreditreport.com
or by calling 877-322-8228.
You
can also ask for your free credit report by mail by sending a letter to Annual
Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348_5281 or by
filling out the form available at the Federal Trade Commission's Web site at: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/docs/fact_act_request_form.pdf.
When
commissioning a credit report try can get the most complete package possible. If
you are receiving a report via an online company opt for a version that contains
visual explanations such as graphs and charts. This makes the information easier
to understand and keeps the reader’s interest as sometimes these reports can
be a little dull and the reader can miss a piece of vital information because he
or she was bored.
Also
ensure that you received both your credit score and report even if this means
that you pay a little extra. The credit score will show you how math formulas
are used to arrive at your score. A score will also help you visualise the break
down of the various highs and lows of your score enabling you to see exactly
what pulling you down.
A
credit report will contain the following information;
1.
Your personal contact information including your name, present and several of
your past addresses, social insurance number, date of birth and your past and
present employers.
2.
Your personal credit information
including details of your loans. This will include who the loan is with and how
much the loan is for. It will advise the viewer of the type of loan that it is
and when it was taken out. As well as showing you payment history. If you have
skipped payments or are late paying the payments it will count heavily against
you in your credit score.
3.
Information about yourself that is contained on the public register. This
information is of quite a sensitive nature as it includes bankruptcies, unpaid
taxes, unpaid child support, tax liens, foreclosures, loan defaults, civil
lawsuits, your dealings with collection agencies and other information. Most of
this information will never be removed from your credit report and due to its
nature can seriously affect your credit score.
4.
It will detail anyone who has looked at your credit report and credit score.
Every time that someone looks at your credit score it is called an inquiry. Your
credit report will list who has made an inquiry in to your credit report over
the last two years. It will also detail how often you have applied for either a
loan or a credit card in that same period. Lots of inquires look bad on your
report and can affect your credit score in an adverse way.
Once
you have received your credit report ensure that you read the complete article
and that you understand all the information that it contains. The report is
useless if you cannot understand it, so if needed please take it to a financial
advisor to have it explain it to you. Note down any errors that you find as
inaccuracies will bring down your overall score and make sure that you do this
for the whole report.
Serious
financial problems that you have encountered through out your lifetime such as
divorce, bankruptcy, law suits, tax evasion or non-payment an so on have a huge
detrimental effect on your credit score. If a large problem has wiped out your
credit score you should consider taking action fact and work consistently to try
and increase your FICO score
There
is a certain etiquette involved when dealing with a problem on your credit
report. There are times when it is more appropriate to contact the company whose
account has caused the problem than the credit bureau. For instance if you late
sending a payment to your credit card company, due to illness and this incident
was noted on your report as a missed payment then you should contact the bureau
to have the error removed.
However if that same credit card company has listed you as having made late
payments when in fact you made your payments on time then you should contact the
company involved and request that they resolve the problem they have caused.
The
information reported by the credit card company to the credit bureau should at
all time be accurate and if it not, then it’s the responsibility of the credit
card company to correct the problem. The credit card company are normally well
motivated in these matters as they rely on your business.
If
a company is constantly reporting inaccurate information about you to the credit
bureaus, then you should either make a formal complaint to that company or even
consider switching to another company. You shouldn’t have to suffer a bad
credit report due to a company’s mistakes.
Look out where you get your Credit Report and
what it contains
There
are numerous places that you can obtain a credit report from, one being the
credit bureau themselves. Everyone is entitled to one free one per year but you
have to pay for any further requests after this. You also qualify for a free
report if you have been refused credit or if you believe you are a victim of
identity thief.
There
is another way of sourcing a report and that is via the internet. There are
several company that offer a free online service which cuts out having to wait
on the post. This is also handy for getting several reports from different
agencies all at the same time. However the standard of these online companies
vary wildly so ensure you thoroughly research the company’s agreement.
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