How To View Your Own Credit Report
As the saying goes, 'There can be many a slip between the cup and the lip.' It’s always better to view your credit report before you apply for a loan. A credit report should have correct information about your name, age, sex, date of birth and various other details about credit history, your timely payments of utility bills, and payment of credit card due, and insurance premium. What your credit report will not mention is your religion, your sexual and political preference. These things do not have any bearing on your credibility.
By viewing your credit report you will gain access to information about financial transactions and various other important issues which lenders wish to know about you. The three major credit report bureaus are central clearinghouses for credit related information. They collect information from creditors, and sell credit reports to companies who will use it to evaluate potential clients for credit risk, employment, insurance and many other issues also. Equifax, Transunion and Experian are the three companies who collect data and give it to the lenders. They also add any new data to existing information on file to create a month-by-month credit history of individual consumers. Businesses can then use this information to decide your credit worthiness. You can always report to one of them if there are any discrepancies or fraud on your report.
One should know how to read credit reports so as to check information in your credit file for accuracy. Information on most credit reports contains details for the previous seven years, but bankruptcies may show up to ten years, so it's really important to check for errors. Some things to check for are: information from someone with the same name as yours, if yours is a common name, residential address that is incorrect or has changed, possible credit card fraud, debts that have actually been paid off but still show a balance due.
You can also order your report online. No need to call or write to the credit bureaus for information. All you need to order for a credit report is a valid social security number (because this is how you are identified to the credit bureaus), and a credit card to pay for your purchase.
If you find errors on your credit report, you can start an investigation to correct the information. Find an article on fixing a credit report mistake on the web that can help you get the process started. Or better still contact your accountant or consultant who can help you with this. This is a serious issue as it shows your credit worthiness to your lenders.
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