credit report - A Summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act

This summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act will explain what you can legally do if you want to repair your own credit report. No matter what you hear, you can dispute credit information on your credit report if you understand the legal rights you have under this law. The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act was enacted by the United States Congress in 1971. In summary, it says that the credit bureaus must investigate a consumer dispute if they want to challenge credit information on his or her credit report. It also states that credit bureaus are required to complete the investigation within a 30 day period. If the credit bureau finds that the disputed information is inaccurate or cannot be verified, they must promptly delete that information. But there are some cases when a consumer dispute can be ignored by the credit bureaus. If you challenge a negative credit listing on the basis of things like health problems, divorce or job loss, the credit bureaus are entitled to ignore those kinds of disputes. The information you dispute must be either old or incorrect. You must file a valid dispute where the credit bureaus can contact the creditor and confirm that the new information you gave them is accurate and can be verified. If the credit bureau does not receive verification from the creditor within 30 days, the Fair Credit Reporting Act says the credit bureau must promptly delete that credit listing. Even though the process sounds simple, the credit bureaus make it more difficult than you can imagine. The credit bureaus don't like the credit repair companies or anyone offering instruction on how to repair your own credit report. Why? Because it means more work for them. The credit bureaus blast credit repair companies in the media and warn people against using credit repair services. The bureaus openly deny that any information can even be removed from your credit report. It is reported that 79 percent of all credit reports contain some type of errors, and up to 25 percent of these errors could result in credit denials, hiked interest rates, and even lost employment opportunities. If you have any amount of negative credit on your credit report it will cause the interest on all loans you apply for to be much higher. It will even become a barrier to your credit approval. That will cost you a fortune in unnecessary higher interest resulting in higher payments on anything you buy. How you decide to address or dispute credit information is entirely up to you. But regardless of what you may hear in the news, thousands of people have restored their credit. You can choose to repair your own credit report or hire a professional service to do it for you. The truth is you do not have to endure bad credit for seven to ten years if you want to challenge the accuracy of your credit report. This summary of the Fair Credit Reporting Act shows you it is possible for you to repair your own credit report and the sooner you start the better. Copyright ? 2005 Credit Repair Facts.com All Rights Reserved. This article is supplied by http://www.credit-repair-facts.com where you will find credit information, debt elimination programs and informative facts that give you the knowledge to correct your own credit and credit report. For more credit related articles like these go to: http://www.credit-repair-facts.com/articles_1.html Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gary_Gresham credit report - Disputing Credit Card Charges Let's imagine for a moment that you've just received your credit card bill in the mail, and you think the only purchase you made with it the previous month was at the gas station. What do you do then, when you find three purchases at Old Navy, and a bunch of other purchases you know you didn't make? Do you know what rights you have regarding fraudulent purchases on a credit card in your name? How about your rights if you purchased an item with a credit card, but never received the products you ordered? If these problems have not happened to you yet, you are lucky. These are common situations credit card users face every day, and it can help you to know before something like this happens to you what your rights are, and what your responsibilities are in the matter. When You Are Not Satisfied With Purchase One of the benefits of using a credit card to make purchases is the additional protection they provide if you make a purchase that you are unsatisfied with. For example, maybe you used a credit card to pay the contractors who were hired to repair your shower leak, but there is still water on the bathroom floor. Obviously, you are not satisfied with the work they completed, and you don't want to pay for it. The problem is, you charged it on a credit card and now the bill has come! Your first step is to contact the contractor, or the merchant you made your purchase from. Most of the time, the merchant is more than happy to replace a broken item, perform the service again or refund the purchase back to your credit card. If you make a phone call, document it and follow up with a letter to cover your tracks in the event the merchant doesn't follow through. If for some reason the merchant decides they are not going to do anything to correct the situation, you should immediately contact your credit card company and report the information. Don't wait to report the problem on a later date- most credit card companies require you to report a problem as soon as you see it on the statement in order to benefit from any of the protection they provide. Charges You Didn't Make Did you know that federal law is involved in helping limit credit cardholder's responsibilities for charges on credit cards that they did not make themselves? The Fair Credit Billing Act actually limits your responsibility to just $50 for any charges you did not authorize. If you open your credit card bill and find charges not made by you, there is a process you should follow to get it resolved as quickly and painlessly as possible. Firstly, call the credit card company and explain the charges that were not made by you. They will give you instructions as to what to do next. Then, you should take the time to find and review all of your recent credit card statements in case there were other charges that you may have missed. The credit card company will most likely ask you to sign a form to confirm that you were not the one who made the charges in dispute. Don't use the card while you are disputing charges. Once you finally get a resolution and get the charges removed, be sure to order your credit report from all of the major credit bureaus in order to make sure that the record has been updated there- because chances are the time it takes to resolve fraudulent charges will have caused late payments on that credit card that may have been reported. You can get more information about credit card disputes from the Fair Trade Commission.

credit report - Disputing Credit Card Charges

Let's imagine for a moment that you've just received your credit card bill in the mail, and you think the only purchase you made with it the previous month was at the gas station. What do you do then, when you find three purchases at Old Navy, and a bunch of other purchases you know you didn't make? Do you know what rights you have regarding fraudulent purchases on a credit card in your name? How about your rights if you purchased an item with a credit card, but never received the products you ordered? If these problems have not happened to you yet, you are lucky. These are common situations credit card users face every day, and it can help you to know before something like this happens to you what your rights are, and what your responsibilities are in the matter. When You Are Not Satisfied With Purchase One of the benefits of using a credit card to make purchases is the additional protection they provide if you make a purchase that you are unsatisfied with. For example, maybe you used a credit card to pay the contractors who were hired to repair your shower leak, but there is still water on the bathroom floor. Obviously, you are not satisfied with the work they completed, and you don't want to pay for it. The problem is, you charged it on a credit card and now the bill has come! Your first step is to contact the contractor, or the merchant you made your purchase from. Most of the time, the merchant is more than happy to replace a broken item, perform the service again or refund the purchase back to your credit card. If you make a phone call, document it and follow up with a letter to cover your tracks in the event the merchant doesn't follow through. If for some reason the merchant decides they are not going to do anything to correct the situation, you should immediately contact your credit card company and report the information. Don't wait to report the problem on a later date- most credit card companies require you to report a problem as soon as you see it on the statement in order to benefit from any of the protection they provide. Charges You Didn't Make Did you know that federal law is involved in helping limit credit cardholder's responsibilities for charges on credit cards that they did not make themselves? The Fair Credit Billing Act actually limits your responsibility to just $50 for any charges you did not authorize. If you open your credit card bill and find charges not made by you, there is a process you should follow to get it resolved as quickly and painlessly as possible. Firstly, call the credit card company and explain the charges that were not made by you. They will give you instructions as to what to do next. Then, you should take the time to find and review all of your recent credit card statements in case there were other charges that you may have missed. The credit card company will most likely ask you to sign a form to confirm that you were not the one who made the charges in dispute. Don't use the card while you are disputing charges. Once you finally get a resolution and get the charges removed, be sure to order your credit report from all of the major credit bureaus in order to make sure that the record has been updated there- because chances are the time it takes to resolve fraudulent charges will have caused late payments on that credit card that may have been reported. You can get more information about credit card disputes from the Fair Trade Commission. This article has been provided courtesy of Creditor Web. Creditor Web offers great credit card articles available for reprint and other tools to help you search and compare credit cards. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Debbie_Dragon credit report - What Does Your Credit Report Say About You Years ago as a youngster I remember watching an episode of one of my favorite sketch comedies, in this particular episode a woman was about to venture out on a blind date. When her suitor arrived at her door she was pleasantly surprised to find a handsome man glancing back at her. Knowing that he'd successfully made it past the first hurdle judging by her positive areaction, he confidently started to joke with her. He then thoughtfully placed her coat around her shoulders and before the slipping out the door a fax started to arrive. She began to read it, her smile fading by the second. It was a background check on her date. She found out that he'd been married 3 times, relied on all his previous wives for alimony, was up to his ears in debt and served prison time for fraud. She ended the date before it even began. Although only a comedy sketch, it does run along similar lines of a credit report, your next date won't have privy to such intimate details of your financial situation, however, your bank or credit lenders do. Why Is So Much Importance Given to Credit Reports? It gives potential lending institutions a snapshot into your personal financial history. From this they can determine how you handle your current debt, if you pay your bills in a timely manner, how many loans you have and how much you owe. It also reveals if you've had troubles with other lending institutions in the past and if it required the assistance of a collections agency. This can be manifested as a negative mark against you in your report and adversely effect your credit rating. The whole point of the credit report from a lenders perspective is to see if you're a prime candidate to lend money to and the likelihood they're going to get that money back, period. In fact any lending institution will know if they're going to approve you within just 5 minutes of looking at your credit report. Imagine that, a life altering decision in the time it takes to cook an egg. Things that Can Go Against You If you have a sketchy payment history, this can be interpreted as negative from the eyes of the lending institution and be seen as a risk to lend you money. A high debt to income ratio. All they're concerned about is getting back the money they borrowed you with extra interest added on. The more you owe in relation to how much you make is a big concern for lenders as that means you'll struggle to meet your weekly/monthly commitments to them. Debt counseling also shows up on your credit report and raises concerns that you've had difficulty in managing your finances. Try to fix your credit as much as you can on your own. Carefully budget to catch up with lagging payments. If you need credit counseling then only do so as a last resort. How to Beef Up Your Credit You can strengthen your credit simply by disputing charges you're not responsible for and getting those negative marks on your credit report removed, why tolerate blemishes tarnishing your credit score when you don't have to? Write to the credit bureau and challenge any charges (accompanied with proof) you didn't incur. It may take a few attempts but persistency is the key. Create history. Establish a predictable pattern of payment by building a regular payment history. Banks and lending institutions like consistency, it means reliability and shows that you're good at paying your bills. Embrace your credit report. It pays to immerse yourself in your finances at least twice a year, that way you can track your own progress and quickly catch any inconsistencies or errors and correct them. This way you know your financial status and there are no surprises when it comes time to apply for a loan.

credit report - What Does Your Credit Report Say About You

Years ago as a youngster I remember watching an episode of one of my favorite sketch comedies, in this particular episode a woman was about to venture out on a blind date. When her suitor arrived at her door she was pleasantly surprised to find a handsome man glancing back at her. Knowing that he'd successfully made it past the first hurdle judging by her positive areaction, he confidently started to joke with her. He then thoughtfully placed her coat around her shoulders and before the slipping out the door a fax started to arrive. She began to read it, her smile fading by the second. It was a background check on her date. She found out that he'd been married 3 times, relied on all his previous wives for alimony, was up to his ears in debt and served prison time for fraud. She ended the date before it even began. Although only a comedy sketch, it does run along similar lines of a credit report, your next date won't have privy to such intimate details of your financial situation, however, your bank or credit lenders do. Why Is So Much Importance Given to Credit Reports? It gives potential lending institutions a snapshot into your personal financial history. From this they can determine how you handle your current debt, if you pay your bills in a timely manner, how many loans you have and how much you owe. It also reveals if you've had troubles with other lending institutions in the past and if it required the assistance of a collections agency. This can be manifested as a negative mark against you in your report and adversely effect your credit rating. The whole point of the credit report from a lenders perspective is to see if you're a prime candidate to lend money to and the likelihood they're going to get that money back, period. In fact any lending institution will know if they're going to approve you within just 5 minutes of looking at your credit report. Imagine that, a life altering decision in the time it takes to cook an egg. Things that Can Go Against You If you have a sketchy payment history, this can be interpreted as negative from the eyes of the lending institution and be seen as a risk to lend you money. A high debt to income ratio. All they're concerned about is getting back the money they borrowed you with extra interest added on. The more you owe in relation to how much you make is a big concern for lenders as that means you'll struggle to meet your weekly/monthly commitments to them. Debt counseling also shows up on your credit report and raises concerns that you've had difficulty in managing your finances. Try to fix your credit as much as you can on your own. Carefully budget to catch up with lagging payments. If you need credit counseling then only do so as a last resort. How to Beef Up Your Credit You can strengthen your credit simply by disputing charges you're not responsible for and getting those negative marks on your credit report removed, why tolerate blemishes tarnishing your credit score when you don't have to? Write to the credit bureau and challenge any charges (accompanied with proof) you didn't incur. It may take a few attempts but persistency is the key. Create history. Establish a predictable pattern of payment by building a regular payment history. Banks and lending institutions like consistency, it means reliability and shows that you're good at paying your bills. Embrace your credit report. It pays to immerse yourself in your finances at least twice a year, that way you can track your own progress and quickly catch any inconsistencies or errors and correct them. This way you know your financial status and there are no surprises when it comes time to apply for a loan. Annette Miller knows for a fact how frustrating being in debt can be, having formerly been in debt herself she is passionate in helping others break free from theirs and has dedicated a blog covering topics ranging from Debt Consolidation to Budgeting and Finance. http://www.debtreduceinfo.blogspot.com Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Annette_Miller credit report - Mortgage Loan - Credit Report Information Credit Reporting and scoring - History and Tips Your ability to manage credit is an important factor in determining if you will repay your mortgage loan. How does the lender decide if you are a good credit risk? During the loan application process, the lender will obtain a credit report on you and any co-borrowers. Credit reports are provided by credit reporting companies/credit bureaus. They provide information about how you have managed debt, including: ' How much and what types of credit you use, such as credit cards, auto loans, or other consumer loans; ' How long you have had and used credit;and ' How promptly you pay your bills. The three major sources of credit information about consumers are Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. Lenders will obtain your credit record from all three of these credit bureaus. The lender will evaluate this information to determine whether or not you are likely to repay the mortgage loan in a timely fashion. How does the mortgage lender evaluate the information in the credit report? One way is through credit scoring. What is a credit score? A credit bureau score, is one of many pieces of information that the lender will use when evaluating a mortgage loan application. A credit score is a summary of a borrower's credit report and a numerical measurement that reflects a borrower's management of credit. Your credit score is based on the records compiled by credit bureaus and includes the information reported each month by your creditors, such as the amount of existing credit you have and your payment history. A credit score considers all of the information in the credit report and converts this information into a number that helps the lender determine the likelihood that you will repay your loan on time. 00 is the lowest possible score, 900 is the highest. 680 to 700 is considered excellent, and less than 620 is typically considered sub-rime, though if there are errors on the report, this would be considered. Credit scoring is an objective process, based only on the infor­mation in your credit report. Factors such as age, race, religion, gender, national origin, marital status, your income, employment, and where you live are not considered in determining your credit score. Is credit scoring new? Banks and other lenders have used credit scoring for over 30 years for credit cards and other types of consumer loans, such as automobile and home equity loans. Now, credit scoring is being used in mortgage lending. Why is credit scores used? Lenders want to extend credit to people who will pay them back, and pay them back on time. They also want to be objective in making lending decisions. In order to approve your application for a mortgage loan, your lender must evaluate and understand many different risk factors, including your ability to repay the debt as well as how you have managed credit in the past. Because borrowers' credit histories can range from being very simple to being very complex, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a given credit history is acceptable or unacceptable, or whether certain information represents a strength or a weakness. By using credit scoring, a lender can quickly and objectively evaluate your credit history in a consistent manner, and determine the likeli­hood that you will repay the loan as agreed. The use of credit scores not only improves the accuracy of the analysis of your credit history, but does so in a way that enhances the efficiency and consistency of the underwriting process. How does a lender get my credit score? When you apply for your mortgage loan, you will give your lender permission to check your credit history with the various credit bureaus. More than likely, the lender will obtain your files from the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. In addi­tion to obtaining a credit report, the lender will also request a credit score. Your score is calculated by the credit bureau -- not your lender -- and is based only on the information contained in each of the credit bureau's files.

credit report - Mortgage Loan - Credit Report Information

Credit Reporting and scoring - History and Tips Your ability to manage credit is an important factor in determining if you will repay your mortgage loan. How does the lender decide if you are a good credit risk? During the loan application process, the lender will obtain a credit report on you and any co-borrowers. Credit reports are provided by credit reporting companies/credit bureaus. They provide information about how you have managed debt, including: ' How much and what types of credit you use, such as credit cards, auto loans, or other consumer loans; ' How long you have had and used credit;and ' How promptly you pay your bills. The three major sources of credit information about consumers are Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. Lenders will obtain your credit record from all three of these credit bureaus. The lender will evaluate this information to determine whether or not you are likely to repay the mortgage loan in a timely fashion. How does the mortgage lender evaluate the information in the credit report? One way is through credit scoring. What is a credit score? A credit bureau score, is one of many pieces of information that the lender will use when evaluating a mortgage loan application. A credit score is a summary of a borrower's credit report and a numerical measurement that reflects a borrower's management of credit. Your credit score is based on the records compiled by credit bureaus and includes the information reported each month by your creditors, such as the amount of existing credit you have and your payment history. A credit score considers all of the information in the credit report and converts this information into a number that helps the lender determine the likelihood that you will repay your loan on time. 00 is the lowest possible score, 900 is the highest. 680 to 700 is considered excellent, and less than 620 is typically considered sub-rime, though if there are errors on the report, this would be considered. Credit scoring is an objective process, based only on the infor­mation in your credit report. Factors such as age, race, religion, gender, national origin, marital status, your income, employment, and where you live are not considered in determining your credit score. Is credit scoring new? Banks and other lenders have used credit scoring for over 30 years for credit cards and other types of consumer loans, such as automobile and home equity loans. Now, credit scoring is being used in mortgage lending. Why is credit scores used? Lenders want to extend credit to people who will pay them back, and pay them back on time. They also want to be objective in making lending decisions. In order to approve your application for a mortgage loan, your lender must evaluate and understand many different risk factors, including your ability to repay the debt as well as how you have managed credit in the past. Because borrowers' credit histories can range from being very simple to being very complex, it is sometimes difficult to determine whether a given credit history is acceptable or unacceptable, or whether certain information represents a strength or a weakness. By using credit scoring, a lender can quickly and objectively evaluate your credit history in a consistent manner, and determine the likeli­hood that you will repay the loan as agreed. The use of credit scores not only improves the accuracy of the analysis of your credit history, but does so in a way that enhances the efficiency and consistency of the underwriting process. How does a lender get my credit score? When you apply for your mortgage loan, you will give your lender permission to check your credit history with the various credit bureaus. More than likely, the lender will obtain your files from the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Trans Union, and Experian. In addi­tion to obtaining a credit report, the lender will also request a credit score. Your score is calculated by the credit bureau -- not your lender -- and is based only on the information contained in each of the credit bureau's files. Myself webmaster of http://www.castlemortgagegroup.com dealing in all type of mortgage loans in Florida, Georgia & Alabama with home equity loans, Florida Home Loans, refinance loans, constructions loans. Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anirban_Bhattacharya credit report - Bad Credit Tenant Loans - Finance Without Credit Enquiries Having bad credit mentioned against your name in your credit report makes you a very risky borrower for any lender if you are a tenant also. So the lender may even refuge you a loan or will put hard conditions to meet for the loan approval. In such a situation, you should find out a lender who is willing to offer bad credit tenant loans that are especially designed for offering timely loan to people having credit problems like arrears, payment defaults, late payments or county court judgments. Such borrowers are approved bad credit tenant loans without many inquiries on some relaxed conditions. Bad credit tenant loans are unsecured loans as the tenants are not required to place any security with the lender. So these loans are fully risk free for the tenants. The sole basis of approving bad credit tenant loans is that the tenant should have a convincing repayment plan to show that the loan installments will be repaid in timely manner. Bad credit is not a problem as the loan is especially meant for bad credit people. One should note that bad credit tenant loans carry higher rate of interest rate. However you should know your credit score because interest rate is determined on it. The lower the credit score, the higher will be the interest rate. The loan amount under bad credit tenant loan usually ranges from '5000 to '25000 depending on annual income, credit score and overall repaying capacity of the tenant. The loan amount can be used for any purpose like buying a car, paying for holiday expenses or clearing smaller debts. The loan has to be returned in shorter duration of 5 to 15 years. One advantage of bad credit tenant loans is that it gives an opportunity to the borrower to improve credit score if the loan installments are regularly paid. It would be wise to compare as many lenders as you can for interest rates on bad credit tenant loans. This way you can avail a comparatively lower interest rate. As far as sourcing is concerned, bad credit tenant loans are available from all lending institutions but online lenders should be preferred for a cost free processing, relaxed terms-conditions and timely approval of the loan.