Cleaning Up Your Credit Report
The credit report is pretty much a story of your financial life, contained in a detailed document. It carries the credit score, which is a ranking usually between 300 and 850. Lenders use the credit score to help decided whether you are worthy of a credit.
The Insides of the Credit Report
The first entry is normally your personal information. It includes your name, listed telephone numbers, previous and current addresses, reported differences of your Social Security Number, past and present employer and the date of birth.
Information regarding your credit accounts follows your personal information entry. This is also listed in detail and normally includes loans, the maximum loan amount, and information of any joint account holders or co-signers. The credit report also incorporate a section, called Inquiries, which lists any person who has recently requested a copy of the credit report.
For some states the credit report contains public record information. Which can feature overdue payments, bankruptcies or other judgments in the court. Normally, these entries can last for up to ten years and may affect your chances of obtaining a loan negatively.
How to Start the Credit Clean Up
First, get a copy of your credit report. See what is out of date or inaccurate, then submit a letter to the bureau requesting corrections to the information. This process may take a long time and you may be required to do several follow-ups with each bureau before achieving a clean credit report.
At least one free report can be obtained by the consumer each year; this rule is included under the FCRA or Fair Credit Reporting Act. You (the consumer) are allowed to obtain a free copy a credit report each year from each of the three major companies handling credit reporting (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax). If you have already obtained a copy of your credit report this year, you may be required to pay an additional fee if you want another copy.
Once you have obtained your report, review it carefully. Often, people who have common names have credit reports that may contain information on other variations of their name. It is important to perform a periodic check on the credit report. Get a order a copy of the report once a year and dispute any possible inaccuracies.
