5 Reasons to Check Your Credit History


by Noreen Ruth - Date: 2007-02-01 - Word Count: 474 Share This!

Just about everyone has borrowed money, used a credit card or applied for a personal loan. This means that most of us have a credit file detailing how much we owe our creditors, whether we pay our bill on time and who has requested access to this information. The accuracy of your credit report can be the difference between being denied or approved for your next loan; how much interest you will pay on balances carried over each month and even if you can get that new cell phone or apartment lease. Creditors determine whether to give you credit or a loan-and how much you will pay-based on information in your credit report.

In a perfect world, your report would reflect exactly how you have handled the responsibility of credit; however, that is not the case. Here are four reasons why it is so important to check your report each year.

Errors and Inaccuracies: By checking your credit report you can spot errors that can harm your credit rating. Whether it is a clerical error or a computer glitch, inaccuracies related to late payments, missing accounts, or even data that is posted on your report by mistake, need to be dealt with quickly by contacting the credit bureau and the company posting the error. Stick with it until you have resolved the problem and preview another report to be sure it is been posted correctly.

Identity Theft: One of the surefire ways to spot this consumer fraud is by reviewing your credit report. Unauthorized accounts can be spotted, canceled and investigated.

Who Is Inquiring About You: Your credit report is the key to approving or denying you the credit you need. Potential creditors, employers, landlords, hospitals, insurance companies, etc., often inquire about your credit before agreeing to exchange services for a fee. Too many inquiries can have a negative impact on your credit. Another issue to look for is if someone has viewed your credit report without authorization. They may have broken the law.

Credit Fraud--Unauthorized Charges: On the same scale as identity theft is credit fraud which involves the theft of your credit card or account number to make unauthorized charges to your account. By checking your credit report annually, you will be able to catch activity that may occur on unauthorized, closed or inactive accounts.

There is no reason to avoid checking your report especially now that you can get free copies from the three major consumer reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. If you order their free annual credit reports online, to be sure to correctly spell annualcreditreport.com to avoid being misdirected to other websites that offer supposedly free reports, but only with the purchase of other products. While consumers may be offered additional products or services while on the authorized website, they are not required to make a purchase to receive their free annual credit reports.


Related Tags: credit cards, credit, history, check

For additional articles and extensive resources for everything you need to know about credit cards, please visit us at WOW Credit Cards.com - Online Credit Card Applications.

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: