Wallet Wizard Personal Finance
Saving your Credit Report
| Credit Reports & Scores |
Joseph Onesta
| Certified Financial Counselor Personal Finance Coach Former Director of Education for Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Los Angeles |
| Contact me: (412) 777-9821 |
 | There are three main credit reporting agencies in the | |
| United States. Any serious examination of your credit reports should include copies of your files from all three. They are: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. |
| Recent laws have required that a free credit report | |
| be provided to consumers on an anual basis. You are also entitled to a free credit report if you believe you've been the victim of fraud or have been denied access to credit, housing, insurance or employement based on information in your credit report. |
| Credit Reporting and Monitoring Services are | |
| offered by all three agencies and many independent companies. These services offer to update you on information in your report, provide access to your reports and sometimes provide on-line means for disputing notations on your reports. |
| Credit Scores are based on the information | |
| contained in your credit report. Scores will differ between reports because the reports do not contain the same information. Some creditors do not report to all agencies or they report at different times. Most of the scoring models are created by Fair Isaac Corporation. (FICO) Fair Isaac also has a credit reporting and monitoring service. |
| According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have | |
| the right to an accurate credit report. When you review your report, check everything. If it is incorrect, inaccurate or obsolete, make sure you dispute and correct the information. Avioid credit repair companies. They can't do anything that you can't do yourself--for free. |
| In general, negative information can remain on | |
| your credit report for seven years. In the case of Bankruptcy, the time limit is ten years. | ||
| If you know the negative notation is true, | |
| disputing it can be dangerous. It can always come back and probably will. | ||
| Dispute all of the incorrect information at the | |
| same time. There is no sence in dragging out the process. | ||
| When disputing information with a credit | |
| reporting agency, the burden of proof lays with the company that reported the information. If you have documentation that indicates a notation is inaccurate, you can just as easily work directly with the creditor and request that the information be corrected on all three reports. |
report or are so overwhelmed by what you see there,
for a very nominal fee, I can review your report with
you and help you understand it's contents and the
steps you need to take to improve both your report
and your score.
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