Benefits of a Credit Report
Aside from protecting yourself against identify theft; credit monitoring is essential for improving your credit rating. Although lenders use credit reports to judge a loan applicant’s creditworthiness, credit reports are also beneficial because they keep us informed of our credit standing. Thus, we can know our odds of obtaining a home loan, auto loan, etc.

How to Get a Copy of Your Credit Report
Getting a copy of your 3 in 1 credit report is simple. Furthermore, because reports are viewable online, there is no valid reason not to check your report at least once annually. Every city across the country has a local credit agency which will issue copies of your credit report from all three bureaus. However, if you prefer the convenience of the internet, there are various websites offering 3 in 1 reports for a small fee. To obtain a copy of your personal reports, you must provide information such as name, address, social security number, etc. Once your information is verified, credit reports are either sent via email, or viewable from the website. Your entire credit history will show before your eyes.

Why Obtain Copies of a 3 in 1 Credit Report?
If you are hoping to improve your credit rating, obtaining a 3 in 1 credit report should be the first step you take. This way, you know exactly what needs improving. The report will list all creditors, current balances, and account standing. Moreover, you should review your report for errors. If inaccuracies are present, contact the bureau and discuss clarifying the matter. In addition, credit reports include a credit score. This 3 digit number carries a lot of weight. Low scores indicate bad credit, whereas high scores equal good credit. If the goal is to improve credit score, it may be wise to improve in certain areas. For example, avoid late or skipped payments, reduce debt to income ratio, settle collection accounts, and limit your number of credit inquiries. The mention of ‘credit report’ sends chills down the spine of people who haven’t been responsible as far as managing their financials are concerned. For these people a credit report is exactly what they need to begin with. Lenders often look at these reports when you are looking for a new loan or even opening up a credit card account. This will give them an idea of how much risk is involved in lending you money.

In the United States these reports are maintained by three major reporting agencies:

• Experian: PO Box 2002, Allen TX 75013, www.experian.com
• Equifax: PO Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374; www.equifax.com
• TransUnion: PO Box 2000, Chester, PA 19022; www.transunion.com

These reports list your financial history including credit cards, home loans, car loans and any other debt you have. The key facts that are recorded are whether you made any late payments, how many times you were late, whether they were 30-days past the due date, 60-days or more. These reports also contain your phone number, social security, current and old addresses. This information is available to qualified lenders - mortgage lenders, banks, credit card issuing companies and other entities if they required during legal proceedings etc. This can be a scary proposition considering that these reports might have erroneous information. These sometimes list inactive loans, show credit accounts that are open even though they are cancelled and others. At times, they don’t list payments that have been made to overdue amounts or other debts that have been paid off. These discrepancies exist even though these companies do their best to maintain up-todate information. This is exactly why it is your responsibility to review these reports thoroughly.

Request copies from the 3 agencies mentioned above, note any errors, find proof via documentation and send these documents along to the agencies to fix the entries. If you are struggling under a mountain of debt, your first step to become debt-free is to get your credit report. Getting to know your past spending habits is the best way to start working on that plan. After having a look at your history, notice any debts that are overdue. These should be cleared up as fast as you can. Often the recommended approach is to pay off the smallest amounts first. The psychology behind this is that you will get more satisfaction from these mini-successes and this momentum will help you build confidence of working towards the bigger goal of being totally debt-free. I know a ton of people who are convinced that if you need to repair your credit, then the Fair Credit Reporting Act is where everything starts. The FCRA is simply a single Federal Statute designed to help to protect the consumers instead of the Credit Reporting Agencies. Or another good way to put it would be to say it protects them FROM the Credit Reporting Agencies and their “somewhat shady� way of doing business.

While the FCRA is definitely the way to begin good credit repair, it is far from the end of the battle to a better credit score. Technically the FCRA simply regulateshow the Credit Reporting Agencies treat consumers. Before this law was enacted in the early 1970’s, these bureaus were unregulated and could do and report just about anything they wanted and to anyone who was interested. The FCRA can start you off to bettering your credit score if you are educated and know what it can do for you to help you both obtain and fix your report score. The FCRA assures that people can get their credit reports at a reasonable price or for free if denial of credit has been made. This can help you to get your credit report from all there major reporting agencies and starts you on the way to financial education on where you have gone wrong and right in your credit history. Attaining your credit report and knowing your scores is the first step to fixing your credit and the FCRA gives you this right for a much more reasonable cost than in the past.

The FCRA also regulates who has “permissible purpose� to acquire someone else’s credit report. This keeps the average Joe or creditor from taking a “peek� at your report without your prior permission or with good enough reason as set forth in the FCRA. One great thing that came about with the FCRA was the delineation period. This means that once something has been placed on your report, the clock starts ticking and it is usually an average of 7 years before it has to be taken off. Bankruptcies can last as long as ten years or any bankruptcy related notations. This is great news for consumers who have had there problems in the past but are now on the road to better credit and have improved their financial positions. It pays to keep “doing it right� when it comes to credit and in a number of years, once these negative items are forced to drop off, it can really bring up a person’s score quickly.

It is important to remember when going about any credit report repair that these reports are NOT official government documents as some may be led to believe but they are simply put out by privately owned companies and regulated by the FCRA and Federal Trade Commission. These Credit Reporting Agencies are not officially sanctioned agencies but simply the average corporation just trying to make a buck.

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