The Function Of Credit Reports And Scores And How They Can Have An Effect On You

By Royce Foster

The opening step to credit repair is to always obtain a current copy of all three of the major credit reporting bureaus credit reports. You are entitled one without charge report each year from every reporting company or you can also get one that contains all three reports for a fee.

A credit report contains the total history of how you have handled credit and your finances in the past. They are used by creditors as a measure to decide if you are considered creditworthy and meet the standards they have set in order to lend money. Credit reports are extensively utilized yet it is interesting to note that as many as 75% of all credit reports have been found to contain errors and erroneous information.

Credit bureaus are only in the business of collecting and assembling information. They do not make any efforts to ascertain if the information is correct and accurate because that is extraneous to them. They can sell your credit report whether the information on it is truthful or not. The only person who is disturbed about incorrect information appearing on a credit report is the consumer.

Credit reporting has a extensive history of inaccuracies, so much so that back in'70 Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This law governs the equity, accurateness and fairness of credit reporting. Under this law, consumers have the right to dispute any irregularities contained on their credit reports.

Within a credit report is a statistical representation called a credit score. This is a evaluation of a number of components such as the length of the credit history, the debt to credit ratio, the sort of credit that is held, how frequently one shops for credit and of course, the history of how bills are paid on time.

The most frequently identified and utilized credit scoring system in the United States is the FICO score from the Fair Isaac Corporation. All three of the main credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion employ this credit score. Sometimes you will see it referred to as the Beacon or Emperica score but it is the same.

While a credit score takes into consideration a variety of unbiased elements, two things that are never considered are current income and employment history. These two things are never part of a credit score, however, they should be and it is most likely that they will be considered by the creditors from whom you are trying to attain credit.

A credit score can fall within quite a large range of about 400 to 800. Scores at 720 or higher are deemed to be positive. A score that falls under 600 is deemed to be a high risk. - 29969

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