Tips To Know What To Do With Your Credit Information
Your credit information may be of no use to you. If you’re not planning on buying a house or renting an apartment, buying a car, taking out a loan, paying for college or getting a new credit card, then you won’t need to worry about getting your free credit score. However, most people need to visit www.AnnualCreditReport.com to get a listing of all late payments, charge-offs, debts, collections, loans, liens and types of credit accounts open, so they can get an honest appraisal of their borrowing power. Credit report services from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion each will offer you a free report once a year to help you see where you are and where you need to be financially.
Sometimes, you may look at your free credit scores and credit information only to find it rife with errors. First, get your free credit scores online from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion at www.AnnualCreditReport.com, then print them out and highlight any negative information. Circle disputed records. Check the expiration dates of the records. Bankruptcy filing records should have expired 10 years after the first filing date, charge-offs should be gone within 7 years, collection records should expire within 7 years and 180 days after the last late payment, closed accounts should be removed in 7 years, foreclosure records last for 7 years, inquiries will remain on your credit report for 1-2 years but will not hurt your overall score, judgments/court decisions will remain for 7 years after the filing date, late payments of more than 30 days remain for 7 years, repossession records persist for 7 years and tax liens can remain indefinitely, if unpaid, or else 7 years from the paid date.
To file a dispute about your credit information, you can write a dispute letter to each of the three major credit bureaus, which are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. On the letter, include the date, your name, address, phone number and social security number. Just write “The following data is incorrect and should be updated,” then list each inaccuracy, explaining why it’s wrong and what it should be
updated with.
Attach a marked copy of your credit score report and include any communication, account records or statements that can help verify your version of the truth. Mail is the best way to dispute with Equifax and TransUnion, while Experian only allows online disputes. The credit bureaus then have 30 days to investigate and repair your credit info. Once it’s finished, they will send you a letter including what was or was not updated. If you’re not satisfied with the results, then you can try to resubmit with different documentation or go directly to the creditor to resolve.
To get more credit information, you can check out www.Credit.com. Here you can look up info on popular credit cards, like the Chevron credit card, learn how to plan to buy a house or a car, learn about overcoming challenges and poor credit scores, and get tools on planning for retirement. You can download money management worksheets and check out online finance calculators, as well as gain access to registered credit experts.
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Categories: Credit Repair, Credit Report, Credit Score Tags: Chevron credit card, clear credit, credit information, credit report services, credit scores range, free credit score, free credit scores online, high scores, improving credit scores, poor credit scores, your credit score
Improving Your Credit Info On Mortgage Credit Reports
To mortgage lenders, your credit info is going to be very important. While it may feel invasive, your mortgage credit reports will tell the banks whether or not they can trust you to repay them. They’ll look for late payments, missed payments, bankruptcy filings, previous foreclosures, loans, total available credit, types of credit, open accounts, closed accounts, collection accounts and pretty much everything financial you can think of, dating back 7-10 years. Low credit scores can be built back up through good behavior, but it may take 1-3 years for the worst offenders to be mortgage worthy again.
Once you know your credit scores, you can work out any blemishes before home shopping. This should be done six months to a year before you plan on buying. If you have a score higher than 700, you needn’t worry. If you’re in the 500s or 600s, then try to pull your score up 100 points to get the best mortgage interest rates. There are five ways you can do this in six months time. First, you can reduce your credit card balances down to 30% of their credit limits.
Secondly, you can cut your credit cards in half, but don’t cancel your account because you’ll lose points and increase the amount of available credit you’re using up. Thirdly, it can boost your credit score to mix up your credit portfolio. A healthy portfolio may include three unsecured credit cards, as well as a form of secured credit, which is like a student loan, auto loan, home equity loan or installment loan. Lastly, you can negotiate with all of your creditors to remove late payments, which can improve your credit overnight.
Credit info on mortgage credit reports and your FICO number are very important in determining what kind of deal you’re going to get on your house; however, it’s not the only factor. Obviously, the more you’ve saved, the better off you are. You should have saved 3-5% of the list price to put as a down payment, although 20% will prevent you from having to pay for mortgage insurance. Other offsetting factors can balance low credit scores: a large down payment, large cash reserves or a low debt-to-income ratio can all work in your favor.
Understanding how your credit info factors into your mortgage approval process is important. One of the biggest problems for many people is that they sell themselves short or feel they have limited options, even though there are many. Poor credit scores aren’t the end of the world. Do not seek a sub-prime outlet if your credit is in the 500s; instead, try to work on your credit portfolio and be patient.
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