| In this country, there are three major credit bureaus: | | | | secure a new loan or mortgage. |
| Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. They offer | | | | It's important to see your credit score and keep it up to |
| information to lenders about a person's credit score. | | | | date. Most lenders are concerned about your credit |
| The lower your credit score, the less likely you are to | | | | activities during the past year or two. You want to |
| get credit. Each credit report comes with "score | | | | make sure the report is accurate for this period and |
| reason codes" to explain why your credit score is | | | | contains no errors. Depending on how inaccurate your |
| where it is. | | | | credit report is, you may not be given additional credit. |
| It is up to you to know what is on your credit report | | | | This is especially crucial if you are applying for a |
| and keep the data up to date. You might have paid | | | | mortgage. It is not impossible to get a mortgage with |
| your bills on time, but your credit report may show that | | | | less than a perfect credit report, but the amount of the |
| your credit is less than perfect. You may have had a | | | | loan and the interest on it will be higher if the lender |
| credit dispute with a merchant that was corrected, but | | | | decides you are a risk. |
| not shown on your report. You may have a | | | | How do you keep your credit report up to date? |
| bankruptcy that was not properly recorded. You may | | | | There are services, such as Equifax, that will provide a |
| also have experienced credit fraud. | | | | credit report to you and advise you on how to make |
| You can fix your credit profile. You can make sure | | | | changes. They will usually update you twice a year on |
| that you aren't carrying more debt than is reasonable | | | | your credit history. They may even advise you when |
| for your income level. Avoid late and non payments. | | | | you are approaching your credit limit. Under federal |
| Make sure that there are no judgments or liens against | | | | law, you are entitled to a free annual credit report from |
| you. You should also avoid co-signing loans because | | | | Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. You should go to |
| they are considered your financial liability. If the | | | | for more details. |
| co-signer defaults, it will be your responsibility to replay | | | | Make sure that when you decide to fix your credit |
| the loan. You should avoid unnecessary checks of | | | | report that you do it the right way. The Federal Trade |
| your credit. Each credit inquiry is recorded and remains | | | | Commission (FTC) warns consumers to beware of |
| on the books for two years. Lenders seeing too many | | | | companies that guarantee that they can remove late |
| inquiries may think that you are unable to support your | | | | payments, bankruptcies, or similar information from |
| current debt and are looking for more credit to support | | | | your credit report. Stay away from companies that |
| it. Having excessive unused credit is not good. A lender | | | | charge a lot of money to repair credit, keep asking you |
| will check to see how much credit you actually have. If | | | | to verify information that you have previously verified, |
| you have too much, the lender might worry that you | | | | refuse to give you their address or push you to make |
| will use up all your credit in a spending spree after you | | | | a decision immediately. |