Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Austin Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Austin

Find out more on Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Austin Now!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Apply To See Your Credit Report And Change Your Credit Score

By Jim Bransby

Your credit score has become the way in which many decisions about you will be made. Applying for credit cards, or for a car loan, will trigger a credit check and generate multiple credit scores, based upon which lender will make decisions about whether and how much to lend, and at what rate. Credit scoring is also used by potential employers, utility and service providers, and many others.

It is therefore incredibly important to improve your credit score. Different credit reporting and scoring companies use different methods to assemble credit scores, but the methods are similar enough that taking certain steps can improve each of your credit scores.

First of all, you need to know the players. There are three major credit reporting bureaus. Each of these has a file about you. Their files are built up over time by assembling the information that credit providers give the credit bureaus. Each time you obtain credit, it goes into your file; and then the credit provider gives the credit bureaus a record of your repayment of that credit.

A good example would be a car loan that must be repaid on the 5th of each month for 36 months. Over the first year, letas say that you make two payments on the 20th, while the rest were received on or before the 5th. The lender sends a report of your loan activity to each credit bureau. Each of these bureaus in turn uses a formula to compute a credit score for you, based upon that reported information.

The next step is applying to check your credit report. This is vital information a" think of it as your financial health record. There are many offers available on the internet through which you can apply to check your credit report and your credit score.

Once you have a credit report and a credit score, take a look at the information reported by your creditors. Make sure that the creditors that are reporting into your credit file are actually your accounts. If there are creditors listed on your report that you did not borrow from, you can improve your credit score by having these entries removed from your account.

Finally, review all payment histories to be sure that they are accurate. If a creditor has reported incorrect late payments, or does not show payments that you make, correcting these can greatly improve your credit score. Your credit score report will contain the addresses of the credit reporting bureaus. Just follow the instructions to write to the bureaus and identify errors in your report

Each credit bureau will investigate the error. Often it will take several letters back and forth, so keep a file of your letters and their responses. By removing incorrect late payments or other information, you can dramatically improve your credit score in a short time.

Apply as soon as possible to check your credit report, then continue to monitor it at least annually. The more you are familiar with your financial health record, the better equipped you will be to improve your credit score. Credit scoring is so widely used today that improving you score will help you in a variety of ways.

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home