Tony Banks asked:




You have a credit score with the three main bureaus, Equifax, Transunion and Experian. Each bureau has come up with their own version of the credit scoring formula which is unknown to the public.

This creates a situation where your three scores are highly unlikely to be the same. The credit score that a lender looks at when qualifying you for a loan really depends on the type of lender. Most consumer credit, car and personal loan lenders use only one score to determine if you will get approved and to determine your interest rate and terms. The geographical location of the lender sometimes determines which bureau they will turn to for that score due to business relationships.

The relationship between a lender and a credit bureau is just like any business relationship. The lender will pay to have access to each credit report and score from the chosen credit bureaus.

On the other hand when you are dealing with mortgage loans, the lender will look at each of your three credit scores. (Equifax, Transunion & Experian) They will base their approval on your middle score. For example your Equifax score was 654, your Transunion 669 and your Experian was 704.

Your mortgage interest rate and loan terms would be based on your Transunion score of 669 because it’s the middle one in terms of the value of the number. It is a good idea to check your credit reports with each of the credit bureaus before you apply for a loan. This way you can make sure there are no errors that will negatively impact your credit scores.

Kathleen

Matt Triplett asked:




You can’t fix a problem until you know what it is right. A majority of all Americans have never ordered their own report and half of those have never seen their own report. The scary part about that is according to studies 79% of all credit reports have errors and 25% of those errors are severe enough to deny you credit. So even though you pay all your bills on time every time, there still could be something on your report that isn’t even yours. Even if you have never been denied credit, these errors could be causing you a higher interest rate.

There are 3 major credit reporting agencies in the United States.

Experian Equifax Trans Union

Creditors submit your payment history to 1, 2, or all 3 bureaus each month. So depending on which creditors are reporting to which bureau, you should have 3 different scores. You can usually get a 3-in-1 credit report that shows all 3 bureaus along with an average score from all 3.

There are several ways to get a copy of your credit report. Order each one directly from the bureaus websites. If you have been denied credit recently you are entitled to a free credit report, that you can order from the bureau directly. If you have applied for credit recently from a local creditor, they can give you a copy if they have ordered it. Go to http://www.annualcreditreport.com This is a government run website that will give you a free report from each credit bureau each year. Order a 30-day free trial of credit monitoring and get a free copy of your reports with it. Just make sure you cancel with in 30 days or you will be charged for the monitoring.

Some reports are harder to read than others. Usually a 3-in-1 credit report from a monitoring service is more user friendly and better laid out. Now you need to review all the information on your report and make sure it is accurate. This includes all the personal information, inquiries, accounts, former names, former addresses, employment, and so on. Having an accurate report is the best way to assure you a fair judgment on your payment histories.

Adam

Tony Banks asked:




Writing a letter to the credit bureaus is the first and most important step to repairing your credit. When writing to the credit bureaus you will have to write a letter to each bureau per negative and/or incorrect item.

An example of a situation in which you would have to write a credit repair letter to the credit bureau(s) is if you are analyzing your credit report and you see accounts that are closed, negative, and more than seven years old. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, accounts that are older than seven years must be deleted from your account.

Remember when you write a letter to the credit bureau you want it to be yours. Copy and pasting a letter from another website is not recommended! A sample of a good credit repair letter looks like this:

Equifax Consumer Services

To Whom it may Concern,

Good Afternoon my Name is First Last. My address is 9999 Address street, City, State. My SSN 999-99-9999 and my birth date is January 01, 1900.

I have critically analyzed a copy of my credit report and I noticed that there are two accounts on my report have been closed for seven years. As you and I both know the Fair Credit Reporting Act states that accounts more than seven years old are to be deleted from my credit report.

Listed below are the details of the accounts that I mentioned above:

Bank of America MasterCard:
Account Number: XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-1745

HSBC VISA
Account Number XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-5690

In order to expedite this process I included a copy of my driver’s license and social security card in case you all need proof of identity. I would also appreciate it if you would send me a copy of my updated credit report once the correction as been made.

Thank you in advance.
Sincerely,
First Last

When sending your letter to the credit bureaus you want to include a copy of your driver’s license with your letter. Please do not forget to send your letter registered mail. By doing this you allow your letter to be tracked. That way you have proof when it was received by the credit bureaus.

Steve

Hector Milla asked:




Most of your needs with a credit bureau can be done over the internet with their websites. However, if a problem arises with your report or certain information is not accepted by the site, you will need to make a phone call. It is a good idea to be able to find the phone numbers of each bureau quickly if you need them in order to get the matter settled as fast as possible.

Transunion 1-800-916-8800

TransUnion is one of the big three credit bureaus that allow for one free report every year. TransUnion was a pioneer in the field, although they were not the first established. TransUnion had the first online database and lead the way for online credit reporting. Now, most reporting is done online. TransUnion has had some troubles though, particularly with a high number of inaccuracies in reporting. One study showed that 79% of their reports had at least some form of inaccuracy. They also were sued for selling private information.

Equifax 1-800-685-1111

Equifax is the oldest of the three credit bureaus. It is also the most widely used. This means that people looking to repair their score will often work with Equifax first. They have had issues in the past when it came to privacy and giving out personal information. Because of this trouble, they have worked closely with government officials to make sure the current privacy laws are relevant and are working for the people.

Experian 1-888-397-3742

Experian is the only agency that does not use the FICO score to establish your credit score. Experian uses the PLUS system. The PLUS system uses the same factors as the FICO score. They weigh the factors a little differently and in a way that is more consumer friendly. They may be the easiest bureau to approach when attempting to fix your score because they are trying to get an accurate reflection of what is going on. Their major trouble with the law came when they tried to automatically enroll people who came for a free credit report to their paid monitoring service.

These three credit bureaus will give you one free credit report each year. There is a lot you can learn from these reports and everyone should take advantage of this great opportunity. For those trying desperately to raise their credit score, it might be a good idea to try out a paid monitoring service, at least for a few months. This way, you can see exactly which of your efforts are paying off and effecting your score. Even those with good credit would benefit from credit monitoring in order to catch fraud. Either way, be sure to get your free reports.

Travis

L. Sampson asked:




It is important to keep track of what is on your credit report by checking it at least once a year. With the amount of free online credit report companies, it is relatively easy to secure a copy of your credit report and make sure everything on it is accurate. However, if you are planning to apply for a home loan, you should obtain a copy of your credit report before you talk to your lender and obtaining just one credit report might not be enough.

Credit card companies and lenders report your account activity to the three national credit monitoring bureaus, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. Companies aren’t required to submit your information to all three bureaus, so it is possible that the information contained on a report from one agency will differ from the information contained on another. You never know which agency your lender is going to use, so to get a complete picture of your credit score, it is a good idea to get a credit report from each bureau.

Benefits to accepting a free trial to obtain a credit report

Joining a credit monitoring system is a good idea in the months before you apply for a home loan. It can keep you advise about who has been checking your credit, alert you if someone tries to open an account in your name, and generally keep you from finding a costly surprise the morning you go to apply for your loan. Joining a free trial in order to obtain a free 3 in 1 credit report is a great way to save money, as long as you remember to cancel the trial once the free period is over.

Things to consider when accepting a free trial to obtain a credit report

Always make sure you do your homework before you sign up for any kind of free trial online. Make sure you read the fine print so you don’t later find you are obligated to continue the service for a certain amount of time after the free trial expires. Even if there are no obligations beyond the free trial period, it may be up to you to contact the company and turn off the service or you will start being charged. If you are not good about details and think that you might forget to have the service discontinued, a free trial might not be your best option. It is possible to obtain a free copy of your credit report directly from each of the three national credit bureaus once a year. This does require individually requesting your report from each company, but it won’t obligate you to any other services.

Deciding whether or not to do a free trial is really a matter of preference. Do you want to trade the inconvenience of turning off the trial for the inconvenience of doing all the individual file requesting yourself?

Kimberly

Vincent Dail asked:




Your credit report contains information about where you work, live and how you pay your bills (On time or not). It also may show whether you’ve been sued, arrested or have filed for bankruptcy with in the last 10 years. Companies called consumer reporting agencies (cra) or credit bureaus compile and sell your credit report to businesses all over the world.

Many financial advisors suggest that you periodically review your credit report for inaccuracies or omissions. This could be especially important if you’re considering making a major purchase, such as buying a home. Checking in advance on the accuracy of information in your credit file could speed the credit-granting process, clean credit is a must.

Because businesses use this information to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment, and other purposes allowed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), it’s important that the information in your report is complete and accurate.

Whenever you apply for any type of credit or financing, a credit report is pulled from at least one of the three major credit bureaus. You want a clean credit report to be pulled. While there are hundreds of smaller credit bureaus around the country, virtually every credit bureau is affiliated with either Experian, Trans Union, or Equifax.

Getting Your Clean Credit Report

If you’ve been denied credit, insurance, or employment because of information supplied by a credit reporting agency, the FCRA says the company you applied to must give you the agency`s name, address, and telephone number. If you contact the agency for a copy of your report within 60 days of receiving a denial notice, the report is free. In addition, you’re entitled to one free copy of your report a year.

If you simply want a copy of your report, call each credit bureau listed since more than one agency may have a file on you, some with different information.

The three major national credit bureaus are:

Equifax, P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241; (800) 685-1111.

Experian (formerly TRW), P.O. Box 2002, Allen, TX 75013; (888) EXPERIAN (397-3742).

Trans Union, P.O. Box 1000, Chester, PA 19022; (800) 916-8800.

Correcting Errors For Clean Credit.

To protect all your rights under the law and to keep your credit clean contact both the CRA and the information provider.

First to get clean credit reports, tell the credit reporting agency in writing what information you believe is inaccurate. Include copies (please keep your originals) of documents that support your position. In addition to providing your complete name and address, your letter should clearly identify each item in your report you dispute, state the facts and explain why you dispute the information, and request deletion or correction. Always keep copies of your dispute letter.

They must reinvestigate the items in question, usually within 30 days, unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all relevant data you provide about the dispute to the information provider. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the CRA, it must investigate, review all relevant information provided by the CRA, and report the results to the CRA. If the information provider finds the disputed information to be inaccurate, it must notify all nationwide CRAs so they can correct this information in your file. Disputed information that cannot be verified must be deleted from your file, then you will recieve a clean credit report, with that item removed.

If your report contains erroneous information, the CRA must correct it(clean credit).

If an item is incomplete, the CRA must complete it. For example, if your file showed that you were late making payments ( 30 days or more), but failed to show that you were no longer delinquent, the CRA must show that you’re current.

If your file shows an account that belongs only to another person, the CRA must delete it.

When the reinvestigation is complete, they must give you the written results and a free copy of your clean credit report, if the dispute results in a change. If an item is changed or removed, they cannot put the disputed information back in your file unless the information provider verifies its accuracy and completeness.

Also, if you request, they must send notices of clean credit report corrections to anyone who received your report in the past six months. Job applicants can have a corrected copy of their clean credit report sent to anyone who received a copy during the past two years for employment purposes. If a reinvestigation does not resolve your dispute, ask the CRA to include your statement of the dispute in your file and in future reports.

Second, in addition to writing to the credit agency, tell the creditor or other information provider in writing that you dispute an item. Again, include copies (please not originals) of documents that support your position. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If the provider then reports the item to any credit reporting angency, it must include a notice of your dispute. In addition, if you are correct that is, if the disputed information is not accurate the information provider may not use it again, thus you will have a clean credit report.

When negative information in your report is accurate, only the passage of time can assure its removal. Accurate negative information can generally stay on your report for 7 years.

Clean Credit: There are certain exceptions:

Bankruptcy information may be reported for 10 years.

Information about criminal convictions may be reported without any time limitation.

Credit information reported in response to an application for a job with a salary of more than $75,000 has no time limit.

Information about a lawsuit or an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. Criminal convictions can be reported without any time limit.

Credit information reported because of an application for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance has no time limit.

Adding clean credit accounts to your file:

Your credit file may not reflect all your clean credit accounts. Although most national department stores and all-purpose bank credit card accounts will be included in your file, not all creditors supply information: Some travel, entertainment, gasoline card companies, local retailers, and credit unions are among those creditors that don’t report clean credit.

If you’ve been told you were denied clean credit because of an insufficient credit file or no credit file and you have accounts with creditors that don’t appear in your credit file, ask the CRA to add this information to future reports. This will help get you on the road to a clean credit report. Although they are not required to do so, many CRAs will add verifiable accounts for a fee. You should, however, understand that if these creditors do not report to the CRA on a regular basis, these added items will not be updated in your file.

Paula

kakk333 asked:


Hello, I ordered a “3-in-1″ credit report from transunion.. well it ends up I cannot dispute claims through equifax and experian unless I have an official credit report # from them.. which transunion does not give you when you order the “3-in-1″ report. So now I have to order a “3-in-1″ report from each company just to open a dispute, that would be $90 total! Isn’t there a way to just order an individual report from each company for $9.95.. i thought there was? I’ve already used up my “free” report from annualcreditreport.com. Is this some kind of big scam to get more money? Need help, Thanks!

Elsie

Jamie Mathis asked:


Click Here to Get Your Chicago Free Credit Report Now!

Get a Chicago Free Credit Report today. If you are a resident of Chicago, you owe it to yourself to sign up for a free credit report. A Chicago Credit Report will help you learn about your credit score and other important financial information – a free Chicago Credit Report will also protect you from identity theft!

Chicago Residents – Click Here & Sign Up to Receive Your Free Credit Report

A credit report is a record of an individual’s or company’s past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy. In the U.S., when a customer fills out an application for credit from a bank, store or credit card company, their information is forwarded to a credit bureau. The credit bureau matches the name, address and other identifying information on the credit applicant with information retained by the bureau in its files. That’s why it’s very important for all Americans to know and understand their credit score. This information is used by lenders such as credit card companies to determine an individual’s credit worthiness; that is, determining an individual’s willingness to repay a loan.

These factors help lenders determine whether to extend credit, and on what terms. With the adoption of risk-based pricing on almost all lending in the financial services industry, this report has become even more important since it is usually the sole element used to choose the annual percentage rate (APR), grace period and other contractual obligations of the credit card or loan. Don’t wait – click on the link above to get your Chicago Free Credit Report now!



June

Jamie Mathis asked:


Click Here to Get Your Detroit Free Credit Report Now!

Get a Detroit Free Credit Report today. If you are a resident of Detroit, you owe it to yourself to sign up for a free credit report. A Detroit Credit Report will help you learn about your credit score and other important financial information – a free Detroit Credit Report will also protect you from identity theft!

Detroit Residents – Click Here & Sign Up to Receive Your Free Credit Report

A credit report is a record of an individual’s or company’s past borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments and bankruptcy. In the U.S., when a customer fills out an application for credit from a bank, store or credit card company, their information is forwarded to a credit bureau. The credit bureau matches the name, address and other identifying information on the credit applicant with information retained by the bureau in its files. That’s why it’s very important for all Americans to know and understand their credit score. This information is used by lenders such as credit card companies to determine an individual’s credit worthiness; that is, determining an individual’s willingness to repay a loan.

These factors help lenders determine whether to extend credit, and on what terms. With the adoption of risk-based pricing on almost all lending in the financial services industry, this report has become even more important since it is usually the sole element used to choose the annual percentage rate (APR), grace period and other contractual obligations of the credit card or loan. Don’t wait – click on the link above to get your Detroit Free Credit Report now!



Johnny