Decoding a Credit Report is Easy: Learn How

Most people we meet in our daily life would say that there are a lot of things on their credit report that they could not understand. People mostly complain about not being able to decipher what the various abbreviations and the numbers on their credit report indicate. However, the truth is that credit reports are not that difficult to comprehend. In fact, if people were given a few tips on how to go about reading a credit report, most of them would be able to read it without much difficulty. In this post, we discuss the layout and the important sections in a credit report, learning which reading a credit report would be a cakewalk for you.

How to Read a Credit Report?

Though the credit reports that the three major credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) provide to the consumers are not the same, the sections that all of them have are almost similar. Usually, the credit report from each bureau contains the following five major sections.

Personal Information

This section includes the personal information of the consumer. The information includes the name, phone number, address, employment details, and many other details. Very few consumers realize that the information in this section is more important than what many consumers presume.  One quick tip – It is common for consumers to come across errors in this section. It is advisable that one must get the same rectified as soon as possible. It is important to do so because often wrong information can be a potential sign of fraud.

Credit Summary

This section includes information on your accounts. It includes the following account types – real estate accounts, revolving accounts, installment accounts, collection accounts and others. The section lists the following details about the different account types – the total number of accounts, the number of current as well as delinquent accounts and the balance in each account type. The section also summarizes the number of accounts that have been opened, closed, and the inquiries made against your credit during the last two years.

Account History

The account history section is one of the bulkiest sections in a credit report. It includes all the information about the credit accounts that you hold and the details about the payments made. Each credit account consists of the following major information – creditor’s name, account number, account type, the amount paid per month, date of opening the account, payment status, payment history, remarks, and more.

Public Records

The public record section is the most important section and any negative information in this section can severely impact the benefits that you get basis your credit report. Therefore, it is advisable to check this section for errors and keep this section clear. This section includes information such as judgments, state court records, bankruptcies, tax liens, and, overdue child support (as applicable in some states). Usually, any account related public record stays on your credit report for 7-10 years. The duration depends on the type of account listed.

Credit Inquiries

This section lists all the inquiries made by third parties on your credit report during the past two years. It lists all the hard as well as the soft inquiries that were made on your credit report. The difference between the two is that “soft” inquiries are the ones that are made by lenders for the purpose of promotions, however, “hard” inquiries are the ones that are made by lenders to check your credibility before approving a credit application.

A Word of Advice

Unfortunate but true, few people check their credit report on a regular basis. Some don’t even ask for the one that they are eligible for free of cost every year. People should order their credit reports every six months, if not quarterly. This would help prevent any credit related issues such as identity theft, rejection of a loan application due to inaccurate information on the credit report, and more. If you want to be financially successful, make sure you monitor your credit report on a regular basis apart from saving regularly and keeping a track of your spending.

Repair Bad Credit Score for a Financially Secure Future

Credit Report – A Spot of Bother

In all these years, have you ever taken a close look at your credit report? You might be too busy in your career or taking care of your family, and didn’t get any time. Well, you could have saved thousands of dollars that you may have paid had you given a little attention. This is not a riddle; so let’s clarify it. Checking the credit transactions on your credit could have revealed several errors and prevented you from shelling out your hard-earned money.

Can you remember the instances where you chose a beautiful home for your expanding family, but your mortgage application got declined mysteriously? Or despite meeting all the qualifying criteria, you received a polite rejection in response to your application for an auto loan? Unavailability of the financial services mentioned above has pulled you back pretty badly. This is not what you anticipated. Since then a lot of doubts and questions are cluttering your mind.

All the answers to your questions may have been lying in just one document; your credit report. The report can have many inaccuracies, and this is why it’s important to fix your credit history. For this purpose, you can hire services of a credit restoration firm to repair bad credit.

How to Read a Credit Report

As basic as it may sound, but it is critical to read the credit report correctly. It will help you identify some major flaws there.

The following sections you need to read on your credit report:

• Identity Detail Section – It includes your name, address, and other relevant identifying information.
• Credit History Section – In this section, you will get a list of the all the accounts opened and closed.
• Collection Agency Accounts – Information related to the accounts, your creditors passed on to any collection agency.
• Courthouse Records – These are the public records that are obtained from the federal, local, and state courts.
• Additional Information – The section includes information related to addresses that you previously resided at and your employment history.
• Inquiry Section – This is the section from where you will get to know which companies requested your credit history in the past 24 months.

Once you go through the above sections in your credit report and identify the inaccurate information, the next step should ideally be consulting a credit repair company. Such a company can fix your credit by following a structured process.

A reputable credit service organization can help you remove the errors from your credit report and also advise you on managing your money and debts. These organizations have experts, who are certified and trained in consumer credit, and money/debt management. This is perhaps the best way you can revive your credit score and become eligible for various financial services.

Summary

Fixing the credit report can resolve the biggest financial woes of consumers. There can be many discrepancies in their report, and it is important to remove those inaccuracies to improve the credit history. A reputed credit repair company can help remove the inaccurate items and repair bad credit in the process.

4 Steps to Raise a Dispute and Clean up Your Credit Report

If this post has caught your attention, the chances are that you may be struggling because of a bad credit score. Consumers are often at the receiving end of inaccurate credit reporting by credit agencies and creditors. When inaccurate items remain on your credit report, they can jeopardize your credit history. There have been instances in the past when consumers were denied credit because their credit score is less than adequate or simply poor. The good news, however, is that by following a few steps you can clean up your credit report and build a strong credit profile. The steps are below:

Step 1: Order your credit report

The only way to solve the inaccurate credit reporting issue is to raise a dispute, and therefore, you should begin by taking out your free credit report and scrutinizing it thoroughly. As a bona fide customer, you are entitled to get one credit report for free once a year from each of the three credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and the TransUnion. Get reports from these major credit bureaus at the same time because there are chances that discrepancies present in one report may not show up on another.

Step 2: Identify mistakes

The more the data on your credit report, the higher the chances of error. As the rule of thumb, read the report carefully and identify those mistakes. Make sure that the following items are correct:

• Your personal data
• Information related to accounts
• Your Credit card data
• Various transactional items
• Any closed or dormant accounts written as “open”
• Any data that is more than seven years old

Step 3: Collate evidence regarding errors

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, all the items in the credit report should be accurate and verifiable. The responsibility lies with the credit reporting agencies when any negative items can’t be verified must be removed from your report. If you find that negative items such as bankruptcies, charge-offs or foreclosure are still in your credit report by mistake, the relevant credit rating agency should investigate the issue, delete them from your report.

Step 4: Inform credit bureaus and creditors

Writing to the three major credit bureaus and the creditors, is important to get a resolution to credit reporting issue. Most debtors make the mistake of writing only to the credit bureaus and not the creditors. It is extremely important to write to the creditors as well because if they admit that the data they provided is inaccurate, half the battle is won.

A Piece of Advice

Despite the fact that restoring your credit score time, patience, and a consistent repayment schedule. ck to where you were initially. The credit bureau has to look into your dispute within 30 days. In case, the credit bureau does not agree with your claim ask them to send in writing their observation. You can consult a professional credit repair firm that has extensive knowledge and expertise in dealing with credit agencies. A reputable firm can help clean up your credit report without you having to go through all the formalities.

Get Your Credit History Restored: Rebuild Your Finance

A good credit score is essential to get various financial benefits such as low-interest rates on loans, credit cards, reduced insurance premiums, zero to minimal security deposits on utilities, and others. On the other hand, a poor or less than adequate credit score can make you ineligible to take advantage of these benefits by bringing down your creditworthiness. A scenario like this can be frustrating to any consumer. On top of it, wrongly reported items on your credit report can add to the woes as they make your credit score dip. The inevitable questions are then “What’s the way to fix your credit history?” and “What steps should you take to dispute an error on your credit report?” Well, in this post we discuss the points you need to keep in mind at the time of drafting a credit report dispute letter and sending it to the relevant authorities to remove the inaccurate items from your credit report and restore your credit now.

Keep in mind the following items when drafting a credit report dispute letter:

Include relevant identification information

If you find inaccurate items on your credit report, raise a dispute with the relevant credit agencies. Draft a letter and include your name, address, credit report reference number, last four digits of the social security number, date of transactions,  and other details. Subsequently, the credit agencies will reply with their clarifications.

Describe the misreported item

The misreported items should be defined clearly for the officials to remove it from the records. If it is a credit card transaction, mention the last four digits of the credit card used, credit card vendor, transaction dates, and amount.
Make your letter readable and sound professional
Hand-written letters should be legible and easy to understand. It is advisable to send a typed and well-formatted letter and proofread the draft carefully. You can also take help of a professional business writer, who specializes in preparing such drafts. As a rule of thumb, avoid making the dispute letter more than a page.

Include copies of your documents

To bolster your case, include all the supporting documents. These documents can elicit a positive response from the creditor involved. Don’t send the original copies as those are the strongest evidence you have.

No need to mention any FCRA rules

Focus on the area of concern rather than reiterating the rules as the people at the other end already understand the rules. You primarily need to specify your main concerns related to inaccuracies in your credit report.

Ask for a Clear Resolution

Some debtors make the mistake of highlighting the problem clearly, but forget to mention the corrective action that is required. Make sure you categorically communicate to creditors/credit agencies about what resolution you want to get the wrong items removed from your credit report.

Conclusion

If you think you are not getting a satisfactory response from any of the three credit bureaus or agencies and that they are dragging their feet on your case, you can seek the help of a credit repair company. Companies like these know all the rules related to fair credit reporting, and they can present your case strongly to remove all the discrepancies from your credit report, help restore your credit score.

Concise Guide to Dispute Credit Report Errors

Credit report errors are one of the many reasons that pull down your credit score. A study by the U.S Public Interest Research Group, highlights that around 70 percent of people with poor credit scores get in that position due to the presence of errors in their credit reports. What some of these people fail to realize is that these errors are disputable and rectifiable and thus, easily removed. While disputing credit report errors, you need to keep in mind a couple of important factors while trying your absolute best to avoid common mistakes people make in trying to resuscitate their credit. In this article, we discuss the do’s and don’ts of disputing credit report errors. Let’s start.

Do’s

Inform Credit Bureau about the Information You Believe is wrong

The first step when disputing credit report errors, is to inform the credit bureau about all errors that you have identified in your credit report. Credit Bureaus don’t take more than 30 days to rectify these errors. While informing the Credit Bureaus about the errors, keep in mind the following points:

• Clearly identify and state the errors you spotted.
• Attach copies of documents that support your claim.
• Explain the facts and reasons why you believe that particular information is wrong.
• Request deletion and correction of the said errors from your credit report.

Write the Lender and Other Credit Rating Agencies

The next step while disputing credit report errors is to inform your lender and other credit rating agencies about the anomalies that you want resolved in your credit report. This step includes the following crucial elements:

• Attach copies of documents that justify and validate your position.
• Request the lender to copy everything to you when sending the rectified copy of credit score to the credit bureaus.

Don’ts

While disputing credit report errors, many a time, people are unaware of their legal rights. Due to this lack of knowledge, people often commit a number of mistakes. Some of the tips that can help you in that regard are:

• Dispute directly with the lender who is providing information to the credit bureau.
• While disputing errors with credit bureaus, don’t oblige to all the terms and conditions laid out by them.
• Don’t provide any evidence or document that weakens your case.
• Don’t include all the information, keep the information concisely, crisp and straight.

Conclusion

Resolving credit report errors is not as easy as it might seem. If the dispute is managed carefully, credit report errors are removable in the nick of time. Many a time, people are unaware of errors that put them in the line of a poor credit score. In such situation, it is advisable to consult a reputed credit repair agency. Credit repair agencies guide and help cleanse your credit report of any errors, bringing back a good credit score that affords you many advantages.