Frequently Asked questions about Credit History and Credit Rating
What is a credit report?
How do I get a copy of my Credit Report?
What do I do, if my credit report contains inaccurate information?
What are the factors affecting Credit Rating?
How do
repair my credit history?
Credit report is a tool for assessing your credit worthiness. Your credit report contains a listing of your payment history on credit cards and loans, including your mortgage. It includes information about outstanding loans, debt repayment and credit limits. It may also include non-credit information, such as jobs you have held, public record information, your date of birth and your address.Your credit report is reviewed by lenders when you apply for credit. They use the report's information in deciding whether to give you a loan. Credit reports are maintained by credit reporting agencies. If you have ever fallen behind in making payments on previous loans or on your credit cards, it may be difficult for you to get a new loan, an apartment or even a job. Most negative information--including information about federally guaranteed student loans--stays on the report for seven years after it was reported; bankruptcies stay on for 10 years.
How do I get a copy of my Credit Report?
You can get your credit reports from all three of the credit reporting agencies with a single online application fromCreditReport411.
You can obtain a copy of your credit report from the three major credit reporting bureaus. It is better to obtain credit reports from all bureaus, since financial institutions use any of the bureaus.
Equifax, P.O. Box
105873, Atlanta, GA 30348, 1-800-685-1111
Experian, P.O. Box 2104, Allen,
TX 75013, 1-800-392-1122
Trans Union, P.O. Box 390,
Springfield, PA 19064, 1-800-858-8336
These companies charge up to $8 to get a copy. There is a way to get free copy. A credit bureau must give you a free copy if you have been turned down for credit, a job, insurance or a rental unit within the last 60 days because of information in its report. The company turning you down must tell you which of the bureaus furnished the report it used.
What do I do, if my credit report contains inaccurate information?
Unfortunately credit reports may contain
inaccurate information. You have the right to ask a credit reporting bureau to
verify information in your credit report that you believe is inaccurate. Also,
contact the company that gave the information to the credit reporting bureau
and ask it to provide corrected information to all credit reporting bureaus it
works with. Inaccurate information about you may be on more than one credit
report. While the three large credit bureaus mentioned above usually share
information about an error, you should write to each credit reporting bureau
to make sure the error is corrected on all your credit reports. About two
months after you think the error should have been corrected, order copies of
your credit reports again to check that the inaccurate information was
deleted. If the verification process does not resolve your dispute, you can
write a statement of 100 words or less to present your version of the
situation and ask the credit reporting bureau to include it in your credit
report.
What is Credit Rating?
Credit rating is a measure of your credit worthiness. Companies assess your credit rating based on the information in your credit report. Each company uses their own criteria to assess a potential client's credit rating. You can use the Credit Analyzer to check your credit rating. Please see the major factors affecting credit ratings.
What are the major factors affecting Credit Rating?
As mentioned earlier the credit rating process vary from company to company. As a general rule, these are the major factors affecting your credit rating.
Click here for the Credit Analyzer to check your credit scoreMajor derogatory items on your report (bankruptcy, collections, foreclosure, late payments) Time at present job Occupation (Professionals are given heavy weight) Time at Present Address Ratio of balances to available credit lines (the lower the better) Are you a homeowner? (if you are, this is heavily weighted) Number of recent inquiries Age (50+ is the best) Number of credit lines on your reportYears you have had a credit in the credit bureau database.
How do I repair my credit history?
There is a lot of companies which claims to
remove derogatory information from your credit history. Use caution when use
the credit repair companies. Many of these companies charge
hundreds of dollars for the promise to "clean up" bad credit reports.
But the truth is, these companies can only do what you could do yourself--at
no charge. Nobody can remove negative information that is accurate from your
credit report. No company has a "secret" ability to remove all negative
information. At least no legal way! One of the tactics of these
companies is to bombard credit reporting agencies with requests to
verify information. If a credit reporting agency cannot verify an entry within
60 days, it will remove the information from the report. But if the
information is later verified to be accurate, it will go back in the
report.
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