Get free credit score reports, and everything it includes, in a matter of minutes.
In the US, a credit score is a number based on statistical analysis of the credit files of every consumer. The score is meant to represent a person’s creditworthiness, or the likelihood of that person paying his/her bills regularly or even at all.
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"Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons."
- Woody Allen |
The score is based mainly on the credit report information from the major credit bureaus. Lenders use these credit scores to evaluate potential risk and mitigate losses and to determine qualifications for a loan, interest rate and credit limit.
The information from three main areas of your credit report is utilized for determining the credit score. Your account information, like how many credit cards you have, your outstanding auto loans and student loans and your mortgages, is part of the credit score.
When you get free credit score information, you will also see public record information like tax liens and bankruptcies and any inquiries or requests made by lenders for the purpose of viewing your credit.
To get free credit score reports, a lender makes a request and it is provided by a credit reporting agency or bureau. It is information that the lender uses in an evaluation of your application for credit. Your credit score keeps changing over time, as new information is reported by your creditors.
Your personal credit report usually contains a number of items. It contains identifying information, your name and any known aliases, date of birth, your current and previous addresses, phone number, your social security number, current and previous employers and possibly your marital status.
This information is partly based on your credit applications and the accuracy of the information depends on whether you have filled the forms out clearly and consistently each time that you have applied for credit.
When you get free credit score reports, you’ll see it also contains merchant trade lines or credit lines, including all regular installment/revolving credit lines like mortgages, department store cards, auto loans and credit cards.
Any history of late payment or charge off and repossession etc are listed and considered negative by credit grantors. Collection accounts are also included.
When the credit account is referred to as an independent collections agency or in house collection department, due to delinquency, non-payment, etc, it shows on the credit report and can appear as paid or unpaid.
A collection account, even if paid, is considered very negative. Federal district bankruptcy records and state and county court records are also included, providing records of tax liens and monetary judgments, satisfied judgments and divorce.
Specific information can be included about each account. This includes the date it was opened, its credit limit or loan amount, remaining balance, the regular monthly payment and your payment pattern.
This information is reported to the credit bureaus by the companies that actually do business with you regularly. Every time that you apply for new credit, the potential lender looks at your credit file and an inquiry appears on the file.
Inquiries also appear if an existing lender reviews your credit to increase your credit line, time period, etc or even when you review your own report. These requests are noted and can remain on your credit history report for 24 months.
You can be sure that each time you get free credit score information and you see an error, you can dispute the information and work to get it corrected.
It is advisable to get free credit score reports at least once per year, in order to verify the accuracy of the information on your report.
"The highest use of capital is not to make more money,
but to make money do more for the betterment of life."
- Henry Ford |
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Debt is NOT your friend. It's not a wonderful "tool" for building wealth. That's a myth.
