Your Credit Report


by Jim Banks - Date: 2007-04-08 - Word Count: 521 Share This!

Today, with the introduction of FICO and credit scores, chances in being approved for bank financing is nil if you don't have a good business credit score, which most starter entrepreneurs won't have. Credit Scores, also known as credit rating in the United States, represent an approximation of an individual's ability to repay a loan.

In the United States, your credit report is an appraisal reports from either of the three chief agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, calculated by means of software called FICO. FICO stands for Fair Isaacs Corporation who designed the software used to calculate credit score.

There are times that reporting agencies such as Equifax, TransUnion and Experian, may have bad information about you, this matters when financing institutions give their decisions on your application.

Lenders using your credit score now base their decisions on facts, not on personal feelings or factors like gender, race, religion, nationality, and marital status, thus reducing discrimination in credit approval processes. Unlike in the past, your credit score is now being used as a gauge for lenders and financial administrators to determine your credit trustworthiness.

One of the wisest ways to improve your credit score is to take a close attention to the information found in your credit report. When you want to purchase a car or acquire a land through mortgage, it is wise to know your credit score. Your credit score used to be top secret information that only lending institutions are allowed to get a glimpse of. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, at your request, once every 12 months.

Now, you can find out what your credit score is by contacting any credit reporting agency authorized to release free credit scores or accessing their respective sites. If you find any such errors in your credit report, be sure to report it immediately to the credit bureau that released it so they can investigate on the matter and repair your FICO credit scores.

Raise Your Credit Score, Raise your credit score!, Repair your credit!, Fix your credit! 100% guaranteed!, You may have seen one of these ads. Such bold promises and with prices to match. However, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released a Consumer Alert against fraudulent credit repair scams, asking consumers to be wary of claims like these.

There are a number of companies that will help you get your credit report from all three of the major reporting agencies, the catch is that they want you to sign up for their monitoring service. This in itself is not a bad thing if that's what you want to do, just make sure you know what you're signing up for.

As part of my annual credit report check up I'll use one of these services, (http://www.creditcardmonitor.org/creditreports.php), to check my credit report and to take a look at the new services that are available. There has only been one instance where I found an error on my credit report, but that was enough to convince me the need check my credit report every year.


Related Tags: bad credit, credit score, credit bureau, credit report, credit scores, credit problems, credit reports

Jim Banks has been helping people for years get their finances in order. He started http://www.creditcardmonitor.org initially to help people find great credit card deals but that site has evolved and now provides information on credit cards, credit reports, credit repair, debt consolidation as well as information on how to improve your credit score.

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