Your credit report is an education for you in your financial history. It is the basis of any decision a lender might make regarding giving or refusing credit to you. It is a smart move to arrange to see your credit report.
You need to know that there are actually three major credit reporting agencies. These are: TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian. It is possible to receive a free copy of the report from each agency once a year. See freeannualcreditreport.com for information on how to obtain the three copies. You need all three because differences may be apparent.
The reports will have several sections. Know that there will not be personal private information about your race, worth, or salary included. There will be the usual identifying such as name, address, social security number in the first section.
Lines of credit will be included such as balances, monthly payments, and credit limits. This section addresses credit cards, department store credit cards, mortgages, automobile loans, department store cards, gas cards. This will also cite dates accounts were opened, payment history (with late payments), unpaid child support, and overdrawn bank accounts.
The court system also provides information to credit reporting agencies. Such reported information will include bankruptcies, divorce, judgments, and liens.
An inquiry from a credit reporting agency will be made each time you apply for any type of credit. These inquiries will be on your credit report and stay on for 2 years. Also, when you make your own inquiry, it will also be on the report.
There is no problem if your credit report is positive. However, any true negative comments will stay on the report for 7 years. Bankruptcies stay on for 10 years.
It is our personal responsibility to monitor our own credit profile, have errors changed and work to repair our credit. Definitely request your credit reports from all 3 agencies, find discrepancies and mistakes and get them fixed.
