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Making Sense of the Information in Your Credit Report
If you've ever applied for a credit card or loan, you'veprobably had your credit report reviewed by the lender. Yourcredit report has a huge impact on your financial future, soit's well worth your time to be sure that you understand whatyour credit report says about you. Even if you're not interested in obtaining credit, yourcredit report can impact other areas of your life. Potentialemployers view your credit report to assess yourtrustworthiness as an employee. Landlords frequently checkthe credit reports of their tenants before allowing them tosign or renew their lease. You can request copies of your report from the three majorcredit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. A recentamendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requireseach of these national consumer reporting companies toprovide you with a yearly free copy of your credit reportupon your request. Basically, your credit report is a summary of how you payyour bills; repay loans; how much credit you have available;what your monthly debts are; and other types of informationthat can help a prospective lender decide if you are a goodcredit risk. Your credit report is made up of several sections. The firstsection contains personal identifying information such asyour name, current and previous addresses, social securitynumber, telephone number, birth date, and your current andprevious employers. Your bill paying history with banks, retail stores, financecompanies, mortgage companies, and others who have grantedyou credit is one of the most important parts of your creditreport. Public records that might indicate your credit worthiness,such as tax liens, court judgments, and bankruptcies are alsoincluded in the section detailing your credit history. Your credit report includes a comprehensive listing of allcredit granters and other individuals who have received acopy of your credit report. In addition, lists of companiesthat have received your name and address in order to offeryou credit are also included in your credit report. Most credit bureaus allow both the consumer and the creditorto make statements if there is a dispute about something onthe report. If applicable, your credit report will includethese dispute statements. Your credit report does not include bank account balances,race, religion, health, criminal records, driving records, orannual income. You've probably heard about a FICO creditscore as well. Credit scores are based on formulas that usethe information in your report, but they're not consideredpart of your credit report. Problems with your credit report will result in you eitherbeing denied credit or receiving a higher interest rate. Redflags on your credit report include excessive applicationsfor additional credit, a short credit history, a high debtratio, and late payments to previous creditors. In most cases, negative information will stay on your reportfor seven years. However, bankruptcy information stays onyour credit report for ten years. To help improve your credit report, always remember to closeunused accounts, pay your bills on time, never use all ofyour available credit, and don't apply for unnecessarycredit. Copyright (c)2005 by Michael Ambrosio. You may publish this article on your site or in your newsletter provided thisresource box remains in tact. Michael Ambrosio is the authorof many credit related articles. Visit his website today:http://www.yourcreditandyou.com and rebuild your credit.
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