KNOW WHAT'S ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT!

Today, more than ever, it's crucial to know what's on your credit report, who is looking at your credit and what your credit score is and what it means. Your credit report/score reflects to lenders your reputation for repaying your debts. In this age of computers, most lenders use internal scoring systems to determine whether or not they should lend you money. Typically, with most lenders, the reason you didn't pay on time is of no matter. It's all about your score and payment history combined with your high credit to available credit ratios. There are very few lenders left where an actual human solely makes the lending decision. In some cases, they have tolerances they can maneuver within based on their internal score cards but their authority is very limited. So if you want to buy a car, get a mortgage or even a credit card, your score will determine if it happens or not and if it does, how much interest you're going to pay.

You are entitled to one free credit report per year and I advise you to get it. Get Your Equifax Credit Report Now!
Believe me when I tell you, you will more than likely find many errors on your credit report. Even if you have relatively good credit, you need to clean up the errors on your report. It could make a big difference in the amount of interest you are charged when you apply for credit. The goal here is to get your credit score as high as possible. You can obtain your report from each of the major credit reporting services individually, Equifax, Experian and Transunion, or you can use a service like Equifax's 3-in-1 Monitoring product.

If you have credit issues, I highly recommend a service such as this to help you make corrections, improvements and to watch your progress. For $12.95 per month, you have immediate online access to a line by line comparison of your 3 major credit reports. You will have daily monitoring of all 3 credit reports with customizable alerts of any key changes to your report, like a new credit card application that you did not initiate. Customer service and Fraud Specialist are available to you 24/7. Equifax will also provide you with up to $20,000.00 complimentary identity fraud expense coverage with no deductible.

While we're on the subject, it's important that you know that identity theft is the fastest growing white collar crime in America. One in five families have been affected by this epidemic. We all know someone who has been a victim in some way shape or form. Did you know that more than 27 million Americans have been identity theft victims over the last five years? Consumers have spent nearly $5 billion dealing with identity theft. That my friends is totally outrageous! The scary news is that this year alone more than 500,000 people will be robbed of their identities. So, the advise to monitor you credit shouldn't be taken lightly.

When you obtain a copy of your credit report, you will be sent forms to dispute incorrect information in your file. You can do this online as well. Notate all errors and supply copies of proof so that the verification process will move more smoothly . Don't wait until your car blows up and you're under the gun to get a car loan. Cleaning errors off your report takes time.



Once you've made all the necessary corrections to your credit report, you can then begin the process to make improvements to your score. Check out my upcoming blog, "Improving Your Credit Score".