Cleaning the mess in your credit report

Cleaning the Mess in Your Credit Report

An important factor that plays an important role in

maintaining a clean credit report is actually the

contents of your credit report. The credit report is

pretty much the story of your financial life,

contained in a detailed document.

The credit report carries the credit score, which is a

numeric ranking usually between 300 and 850. Several

lenders use the credit score to help them decided

whether you are worthy of a credit. More so, the score

is also used to determine your capability of paying a

loan. The credit report is important and cleaning or

maintaining a good credit report is vital to your

financial survival.

A Look inside the Credit Report

In a credit report, the first entry is normally your

personal information. It includes your name, listed

telephone number/s, previous and current addresses,

reported differences of your Social Security Number,

past and present employer and the date of birth.

The information regarding your credit accounts follows

your personal information entry. This is also listed

in detail and normally includes loans, the maximum

loan amount, and information of any joint account

holders or co-signers. The credit report also

incorporate a section, called Inquiries, which lists

any person who has recently requested a copy of the

credit report.

There are some states, wherein the credit report

contains public record information. This information

can feature overdue payments, bankruptcies or other

judgments in the court. Normally, these entries can

last for up to ten years and may affect your chances

of obtaining a loan negatively.

How to Start

Firstly, in order to clean your credit report, you

will need to order a copy of the report. You must

determine what is out of date or inaccurate, after

which you can submit a letter to the bureau requesting

fixes to the information. This process may take a long

time and you may be required to do several follow-ups

with each bureau before achieving a clean credit

report. However, to perform this correctly, you must

be aware of the information the credit agencies are

allowed to report and the duration.

Ordering a credit report can be easily done and

accessible to everyone, since at least one free report

can be obtained by the consumer each year; this rule

is also included under the FCRA or Fair Credit

Reporting Act. More so, the consumer is also allowed

to obtain a free copy of his or her credit report each

year from each of the three major companies handling

credit reporting, namely the Experian, TransUnion, and

Equifax. However, in case you have already obtained a

copy of your credit report this year, you may be

required to pay an additional fee if you want another

copy.

Once you have obtained your report, review it

carefully. Every detail must be inspected since

bureaus can sometimes confuse names, addresses or

employers. Most often, people who have common names

have credit reports that may contain information on

other variations of their name.

Additionally, it is important to perform a periodic

check on the credit report. It is advisable to order a

copy of the report once a year and dispute any

possible inaccuracies. Always take careful steps in

handling your payments and make sure not to make any

late payments. Time is of the essence and even minimum

payments should not be neglected. Remember that

carefully managing your credit can add as much as

fifty points to your credit score per year.