What is a Credit Report

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:47:36 +0000

Credit Report 101

To understand how to get the best credit you must know what is a credit report and how they are used. You also need to know what a credit repository is in their role in affecting your credit. First a credit repository is a company that gathers information from member companies about the credit that you have with them. They provide a means for the creditors to report information to them regarding your credit account. The information they then report is called of course a credit report. By law the credit repositories (commonly known as credit bureaus) are to be an unbiased third party that reports factual information about your credit history with your creditors. In fact they are generally paid by the creditors and therefore align with them unless you force the issue.

Credit Repositories

There are 3 major national credit bureaus; Trans Union, Experian and Equifax. Each credit is national but they have there regions where they are predominate in. Many creditors choose not to join all three repositories and may opt to join the 1 or 2 that are predominant in the area they do business in. Even some national creditors do not report to all repositories. The cost that the creditor pays to be a member of the credit repository depends on a number of things. One feature is how often they report. Some creditors report once a month and others choose a bi monthly or quarterly option to save money. Even more creditors choose to report monthly to one credit repository and less frequently to others as a cost saving measure. With this in mind you will sometimes notice that the credit report may sometimes have information 3 months old or older. Therefore the balances and sometimes other information are almost always wrong. Another feature of the credit repositories is that they report what the lender tells them and until recently there was not an effective way for you to challenge the information. Today you can challenge the information and the creditor has 30 days to respond or the repository must go with the information you provide. Knowing how the credit repositories work and knowing your rights with them and the information they publish as your credit report will help you better manage your credit and get the best credit.

Know Your Rights

To get the best credit you must know your rights as a consumer. You do have many rights and there have been many lawsuits that the credit reporting agencies have lost that caused them to pay major damages to consumers. Now they are more consumer friendly than in the past. It is still not easy to navigate the gatekeepers, but believe me it is much easier than it was in the past. One important tool that you have today is the ability to get a free copy of your credit report once a year. You do this by going to http://anualcreditreport.com and you can instantly get your free copy of your credit report from the 3 major repositories. This is very helpful to see what they are reporting on your report and to be able to challenge any false information immediately. It is also very important that you get a credit report from each repository and manage it because they are different. As mentioned earlier all creditors do not report to all repositories and if they do they not report to all repositories monthly.

Manage Your Credit

The most important factor in you being able to get the best credit is to manage your credit. To manage your credit entails a number of things including:

A Personal Budget
Pay Bills on Time
Manage Your Balances
Monitor Your Credit Reports
Be Proactive

Knowing how the credit repositories work, while understanding basic information about what is a credit report and being proactive to manage your credit will help you get the best credit in all situations.

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What is a Credit Report