Archive for December, 2009
Friday, December 25th, 2009
Most people know that if they pay their bills late, their credit scores will suffer. However, most people don’t know this: According to Credit.com, a single 90-day late payment is as damaging as a bankruptcy filing, a tax lien, a collection, a judgment, or a repossession. It doesn’t matter if you’re late paying a $50 credit card bill or a $2,000 mortgage payment. All that matters is that you were 90 days behind in paying your due balance.
Payment punctuality counts for about 35% of your overall credit score. Paying bills on time is generally the single most important contributor to a good credit score. Being late on any bill, for any length of time, is a possible sign of future non-payment of debt and is always viewed negatively by lenders. Late payments stay on your credit report for 7 years from the date of the initial missed payment.
A 30 or 60 day late payment will damage your credit score only while it is being reported as currently past due. They usually don’t cause lasting damage to your credit score after this period passes unless you make 30 or 60 day late payments on a regular basis.
If you only have a few 30-60 day late payments listed on your credit report, the best thing to do is contact your creditors by phone and ask them to remove it. Tell them a nice little story and ask them nicely to remove it. Follow the conversation with a written request to have the isolated late payments removed from your reports. However, if you consistently make late payments, it will probably take a little more effort.
As mentioned, a 90-120 day late payment is extremely damaging. At around 90-120 days, the creditor will usually write off the account and it will stay on your credit report as a charge off for 7 years.
If you are unable to get the creditor to remove the late payment history from your reports, there are a few other ways to do it. One of the best ways is to dispute them with the credit bureaus.
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Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Your credit report is important to you because it will determine whether or not you can get approved for a loan. In your credit report you will find information about your past credit payment history as well as places you lived and places you have worked. It is important to make sure that you credit report is accurate and the best way to do that is to check on it periodically and make sure everything is OK. there are times when the credit agencies have false information on you are the wrong information and it is very important for you to keep track of what it says.
When you go to apply for a credit card or any type of loan then you can be assured that the lender will look at your credit report and check to see if you are credit worthy. You can sometimes still get a loan if you have bad credit or late payments but what will happen is that you will end up paying a higher interest rate on the loan and this will cost you more money over the life of the loan.
You are entitled to a free credit report once a year and you should take advantage of getting yours. Also if you have been denied credit you can also obtain a free credit report. It is important to dispute any items on your credit report that are untrue and make sure that they are corrected.
Remember that your credit report is your life line to obtaining a loan at a good interest rate so you need to protect it.
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Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Are you concerned about your credit? Do you want to know what is going on with your credit so that you know that you are in good standing? You get one free time a year to check credit score free and you need to use it. This is a great way to make sure nothing is happening to hurt your score that is not your doing. Here are some tips to help you with your free credit score.
First, when you check your credit for free you have to understand that they will require a credit card and you will have to test drive their credit monitoring service, which usually has a free trial period. Make sure to cancel this subscription if you do not want it because if you don’t they will charge your credit card after the trial period. It is usually about $30 so if you want the maximum protection using a monitoring service is a good way to go.
Second, you need to scan your report for errors and accounts that do not belong to you. Mistakes happen and you need to dispute anything that is not yours or is not reported correctly. Sometimes when you pay off a debt it never gets reported as such when it should. The people reporting these accounts are only human so you have to understand that mistakes happen. Staying on top of your credit will allow you to make sure these mistakes don’t hurt your credit.
Last, you can check credit score free once a year, but you really need to pay to do it once every 3 months. This will give you the most accurate look at your credit each time you check it and it will help ensure that nobody gets a hold of your identity or reports an account in error. You will be able to address these issues much easier and you will not have to worry about going years without figuring out that there is a mistake that could have been fixed.
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Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
Even though everyone in United States now has a right to obtain a free credit report annually from each of the three main credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, there is still considerable doubt among consumers as to whether they can get a credit report without having a credit card.
In fact having a credit card is not required to get your credit report. Everyone is free to have a look at his financial records without any charge whatsoever once a year. This is mandated by law. However many (in fact almost all) of online credit report providers that offer free credit card reports use credit cards as a method to verify the identity. This is one of the main reasons for the confusion. Consumers should be wary of using such services and they must go through the small print.
In any case there is no need for a credit card to obtain your free credit report and you can bypass the need to go through other online sites when you can obtain the credit report from the legally mandated source site. All you have to do is to visit the central website maintained by the three main credit bureaus to provide the free credit reports according to the provisions of The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act (FACT). This website is named annualcreditreport.com and once you complete the form there, you can almost immediately see your credit report.
You will be asked for proof of identity but it will not be your credit card. You will be asked to provide your name, address, date of birth, and social security number. If you have changed residence you will be asked to provide previous address. In addition the credit bureau from which you requested the report will ask you to answer a question, the answer to which only you may know. Questions may change from one bureau to another, but they will most likely comprise employment history, previous addresses or telephone numbers.
You can also request your free credit report through the toll free telephone number or through the mailing address provided by the three credit bureaus. Using that method you will get the report within 15 days of the request.
Federal Trade Commissions which mandated the law for receiving your annual credit report free of charge has given notice that only one website has the authority to provide your free annual credit report. That website is annualcreditreport.com. They also warn of other websites that offer free credit reports, but with the catch of having to signup for credit monitoring. It should be noted that the only true way of receiving your report without having to register for other services is to contact the credit bureaus directly. This is done either via the website, telephone or through postage mail.
Since you can request the credit report from each of the three credit bureaus annually you can space the requests out instead of requesting all three report at once. That way you will not have to wait 12 months for your next free credit report. Note, however, that the three bureaus have different sources for the information they include in their reports. Therefore, their credit reports for the same person tend to differ from each other.
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Monday, December 21st, 2009
Your free credit report supplies you with all the necessary information you need to know about your personal credit history. You can request your credit report personally and receive the information online. Without much effort and a small amount of time, you can request a “free copy of my credit report” from an online service.
The website Annual Credit Report allows you, the consumer to review your free credit report once a year. If you do not have access to a computer, you can request a credit report by filling out the information available from the FTC and sending it to the address provided for Annual Credit Report.
The three top credit agencies that you receive a credit report from are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These credit-reporting agencies have all your personal information as well as your credit history and your credit score. All the reports come as one request per year. If you decide to ask each credit agency separately in writing for this information, without using Annual Credit Report services, you have to pay a fee for the credit report.
If you have received a denial on a loan or credit card, a job or an insurance policy, you can still receive a credit report free from the credit agencies without payment. This has been a ruling for years and this free service does not affect that option. Because your credit report is free, viewing it once a year prevents any problems down the road from fraudulent claims or identity theft as well.
Obtaining a free credit report online is done by visiting the website and checking “free copy of my credit report” then submitting your information. This is a free credit report without a credit card. Annual Credit Report does not charge to view your credit report like some sites. It is hassle free and quick with no payment needed, unless you request your credit score, which is a different type of credit history.
Since your credit report supplies creditors with information on your payment history, how much credit you have taken out and still have or have paid off, you want to stay on top of the credit report to catch any errors that may occur. The report also get creditors see how many times you applied for credit and been denied or approved. Because of this reporting process, you may find some applications that you never knew about.
Get your free credit report today from Annual Credit Report and see what your credit history says about you and your finances. Do not get turned down for a loan or a job because you had no idea that your credit report stated something less than satisfactory.
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