Raise My Credit Score Understanding Credit Report
Even if you are fluent in several foreign languages, you can have problems when it comes to credit reports. The symbols, legends and inside credit score language is frustrating, but you shouldn’t feel too bad because you’re not supposed to have great understanding of your credit report.
If you’ve been following credit card reform, more apt the credit card legislation, you’ll understand the reasons for this disguise. By keeping consumers in the dark, credit card companies have the upper edge when it comes to profits. Where else in the civilized world are you able to raise interest rates at a whim? And to make them retroactive because a consumer is a day late with their charge card payments? For years, creditors and lenders have been taking advantage of consumers, so why would not the major credit reporting agencies making it equally hard when it comes to attempts to increase credit scores?
Granted, they may not have as much to gain in terms of profits, but consider the personnel needed to handle a credit score dispute. Every credit report dispute letter initiated by a consumer or their advocate, must be addressed and the investigation completed within 30 days or the item in question must be deleted from the credit report. If you take into consideration that credit card companies also act as customers to the credit reporting companies, in the form of purchasing data, then you might expect some mutual back scratching. The bottom line is that there is no benefit to making it easy for consumers to be able to have a clear understanding of their credit report.
There is no cost savings to make credit reports easier to understand because that will just lead to an onslaught of dispute letters to creditors. Imagine if you could actually see a reporting error stated in simple language. Perhaps there would be a chart, outlined in colorful hues indicating your credit mistakes. I know this is wishful thinking, but my point is that it is difficult to journey through your credit report and you should not get too upset because you do not understand what everything means. By the way, the AVAIL Credit Coach is offering easy to understand credit reports. Check it out at my website.
Here is another adventure when dealing with the three major credit reporting agencies. If you have recently elected to receive the free credit report as mandated by law, you might also be looking for your credit score. I mean, how can you write a dispute letter and embark on a program to improve credit scores when you do not even know what your score is? Do not look too hard because the credit report score is not included in the free report. Is not Congress wonderful the way they look out for our interests? Making the credit reporting people toe the line?
The reason you do not receive credit scores is purely financial. Just because you are entitled to a free credit report does not mean you have the right to get your credit scores for free also. No. You must pay for this right and although every loan officer has this information in front of them, you, the consumer will pay. Be prepared then to shell out about eight dollars for online credit score and after you get the entire report, complete with scores, you can venture on to a credit repair program to fix credit score.
Understanding credit score is always an adventure.
Once you get the the actual nuts and bolts of your credit report, look for obvious mistakes. Start with your name. Have you been recently divorced or have you changed your name? Look for address changes and verify the information being reported is correct. Your birth date, occupation and current residence is all information that must be reported correctly because someday when you apply for a loan, you may get held up by a loan committee who wants a squeaky clean credit report with accurate information. It happens all the time.
Look at your accounts. If you can understand the symbols and numbers defining your spending and payment habits, check to make sure everything is right. Are accounts older than 7 years still being reported? Is the high credit line still available even though you closed the account years ago? How about the specifics of the accounts? Make sure if you are a signor and not the primary account holder, that the information is not reflected on your credit profile. Finally, there is the payment history. Who is late and why? Check balances of every account to make sure they are reporting properly.
Finally, dispute everything that even seems wrong. Write a dispute letter, available on my website, and follow the instructions for submitting the credit report dispute letter. remember, it is their job to make sure everything you dispute is verified. This must be accomplished within 30 days so send your dispute letter certified mail. Follow up with another collection dispute letter if you do not hear any results within the allotted time. Congratulations. You are on your way to saving money after you raise a credit score.
Chuck Machado is with the commercial finance company Understanding Credit Score, located in Southern California. He writes extensively about loans, debt, and commercial financing. If you have questions or comments, he encourages his readers to contact him through his website http://www.raise-credit-score.net
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