Archive for the ‘credit bureaus’ Category

Poor Credit Can Harm Your Chances of Good Employment

Wednesday, October 8th, 2014

Is that fair?  Probably not, but it’s true.

A 2012 survey by the Society of Human Resources Management indicates that as many as 47% of employers check credit before making hiring decisions. The premise is that individuals with poor credit are probably having financial difficulties and so might be more likely to embezzle funds or sell company secrets for a profit.

That has no bearing on your ability to perform a myriad of jobs to an employer’s satisfaction, but it still might have a bearing on whether you’re chosen for the job.

You can deny them the right.

Before a potential employer can check your credit, you must sign giving your permission. You can refuse, but then what are your chances of being hired? Refusal could be (to them) a clear indication that they’ll see something damaging on that report. They may not be able to turn you down based on the refusal, but it’s easy enough to find some other reason to choose a different candidate.

What can potential employers see?

They can’t see your credit scores, but they can see all of your identifying information such as address, date of birth and previous employment information. They can also see your trade lines and credit accounts and take note of the number and nature of inquiries into your report. Finally, they can see things of public record, such as information on collections, foreclosures, bankruptcies, etc.

They’ll also see any mistakes that appear on your credit report:

Credit bureaus are quick to admit that up to 70% of all credit reports contain some kind of error. It may be something simple, like a misspelling of your name, or it may be something serious. For instance, a missed keystroke could put someone else’s collection on your report just because your social security numbers are one digit apart.

“70% of all credit reports contain some kind of error”

That’s one of the reasons why it’s important for every citizen to access their credit reports with regularity, and to read them carefully. When you spot a mistake and report it quickly, it has less time to do damage.

“Thieves can open new accounts completely without your knowledge”

The second reason is identity theft. No one is immune from the threat, and one of the fastest ways to discover it and stop it is by keeping a close watch on your credit accounts and your credit report. Thieves can open new accounts completely without your knowledge. All they have to do is use a bogus address.

So be careful. Get your credit report and read it carefully. If there’s an error or an account you don’t recognize, report it immediately.

Click here to get your report today.

5 Important Reasons Why You Should Monitor Your Credit Report and Scores Regularly

Monday, September 29th, 2014

When it comes to credit scores, many consumers try to keep their head in the sand. They’re afraid to know the truth, or they think it really doesn’t matter.

But it does matter. In this case, what you don’t know can hurt you, and knowledge can become power.

Your credit score or scores play a central role in your financial life, and can even affect your personal life. That’s why you should monitor your credit report and scores regularly, and why you should develop good credit habits to keep those scores as high as possible. A bonus to receiving your credit report is the good advice you’ll get regarding ways to raise those scores.

1. Your Scores Will Determine Your Access to credit.

Lenders look at those scores to determine their risk in lending to you. Thus, when your scores are high you’ll have an easier time obtaining credit. When they’re low, you may not be able to obtain credit at any price, especially if you need money for a business start-up.

If you know you’re going to want credit in the future, get busy raising those scores!

2. Your Credit Scores Will Determine the Interest Rate You’ll Pay

With high credit scores, you’ll be offered credit at lower interest rates than those with poor scores. When your scores are low, lenders are taking an increased risk that you’ll default. They want to be well compensated for taking that risk.

Think about credit cards, whose interest rates can vary from under 5′% to 25%. In fact, I’ve seen offers made to people with poor credit with rates over 70% – combined with an annual fee reaching upwards of $200. Borrowers with high credit scores generally pay no annual fee.

Then think about home mortgage loans, where a difference of 1% on each $100,000 owed amounts to almost $60 per month.

If you want to pay the least possible interest on your next purchase, start raising those scores!

3. High Credit Scores Make You Attractive to Landlords

Low scores make you a high risk and your rental application is apt to be flatly turned down. No landlord wants the risk of tenants who fail to pay rent – or who move out in the middle of the night.

Thus, even if you treat your housing well and have always paid your rent on time, low scores could prevent you from living in the location you prefer.

If you want to live in a prime location, get your credit scores as high as you can!

4. Poor Credit Scores Lead to Utility Deposits

Utilities such as electricity, water, gas, phone, and cable TV can’t repossess what they’ve sold you if you fail to pay at the end of the month. Thus, when your credit scores indicate that you’re a high risk, they’ll demand a deposit up front before providing you with service.

If you want utility companies to trust you, raise your credit scores!

5. Last but definitely not least – Monitoring your credit report and scores will help you avoid the huge headache of identity theft.

Identity theft is always painful, but it is MORE painful when it’s been allowed to continue for months on end.

Running regular checks on your credit scores will alert you to a sudden drop, which might indicate fraudulent activity. And when you actually read your credit report, you’ll know instantly if someone has obtained new credit, rented a house, signed up for utilities, or even gotten a new job in your name.

Reporting such theft instantly will minimize the damage and the pain.

Request your free credit report and scores from creditscorequick.com today.

Just click here

Sallie Mae causes credit score error.

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Some borrowers that have sallie mae student loans were shocked last week when they checked their credit report with Equifax, only to find that their credit scores have dropped. Some of the borrowers were delinquent, and some were not.

Here is what happened
Last Thursday May the 8th Sallie Mae made a error in the way some student loans were reported to the credit bureau. They reported graduated or extended repayment plan as arrangements for partial payment. This caused Equifax the biggest and oldest credit bureau to code the accounts as delinquent, even if they were current.

An extended payment plan allows the borrower to pay the loan out over 12 to 30 years. The standard plan usually is in repayment over 10 years. A graduated payment plan starts out as a low payment, and gradually increases every two years over a term of 12 to 30yrs.

“ There are some repayment plans that on our system are considered a partial payment. They are still in current status, but they are essentially for an extended or graduated repayment plan, and with our understanding of these industry guidelines on how to code that is where we made an error,” Says Martha Holler, spokeswoman for Sallie Mae. “

Borrowers with extended or graduated repayment plans who applied for credit or pulled their credit scores in the last three business days may have had “one or more of their accounts show up late, and had a negative impact on their credit scores,” Says Tom Joyce, spokesman for Sallie Mae

Some students that had these types of loans complained in the FICO forums that their FICO scores had dropped a total of 100 points because of this mistake.

Joyce says ” less than 10 percent” of their 10 million borrowers, or less than 1 million borrowers were affected by this mistake.

Action being taken
Sallie Mae plans on working with Equifax to fix this problem with borrowers who’s credit reports were affected. These errors will be deleted from the Equifax, and the borrower’s credit score should return to the scores they were.

Meanwhile Sallie Mae said they would provide letters to those that need them. Sallie Mae urges borrowers concerned about this mistake to call (888) 272-5543

This is a great reason to pull your credit report; you never know when a creditor is going to make a mistake. Current statistics show that 80% of credit reports have errors on them.

Get your free credit score report today !

This article was wrote: by www.bankrate.com

Mike Clover is the owner of http://www.creditscorequick.com/. CreditScoreQuick.com is the one of the most unique on-line resources for free credit score report, fico score, free credit check, identity theft protection, secured credit cards, student credit cards , credit cards, mortgage loans, auto loans, insurance and a BlOG with a wealth of personal credit information. The information within this website is written by professionals that know about credit, and what determines ones credit worthiness.

Fix Credit Report Errors: Learn How

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

This is a step by step guide that will give you the tools to fix inaccurate information on your credit report. First you need to check when the information being reported is set to expire. Next use our customizable dispute letter, and sent it to the Credit Bureaus. It is really that simple.

Step 1: Look for incorrect information being reported about you:

Order a current copy of your credit report with scores from all 3 Bureaus online. Print your credit report and view it carefully. Make note of any information that is not correct. Determine when the information is set to expire. This guide will help you determine if and when the negative information on your credit report will expire.

Public Records:

a.Bankrupcties- Chapter 7 Bankruptcy will expire from your report after 10 years of file date. Chapter 13 will expire from your report after 7 years from file date.

b. Judgements- Court ordered decisions stay on your credit report for 7 years from file date. Example: child support, civil and small claims court.

c.Tax Liens- Tax liens stay on your credit report until you pay it off. Once you have paid the tax lien, it will stay on there 7 years from paid date. This applies to City, State, and Federal tax liens.

Charge –off – records- this record will show up on your credit after a creditor has wrote off the debt as a loss. This will remain on your file for 7 years.

Inquiries- Records of application for credit. These types of inquires usually stay on credit for a maximum of 2 years. Checking your credit online with credit sores does not damage your credit like these inquires do.

Closed Accounts- This information whether negative or good stays on your credit report for 7 years.

Collection Accounts- This record should expire after 7 years from the last 180 day late payment that led the account to collection to begin with. The expiration date is the same even if the collection is sold multiple times.

Foreclosure Records- Foreclosure and property deed-in-lieu records remain on credit for 7 years from foreclosure date.

Late Payments- Late payments stay on record for 7 years.

Repossession Records-Vehicle repossessions stay on you credit report for 7 years.

Use this expiration information to determine what should not be on your report. You should also check for information that is being reported on there that is not yours. Also make sure there is no information that are cross records either.

Step 2: Write Dispute Letter

Once you have determined what is not correct on your report, it is time to write you disputes to the Bureaus. You will need to send the letter to each of the credit bureaus via certified mail.

Example dispute letter:

Date

Your NameMailing AddressCity, State, Zip

Re: Disputing Inaccuracies on My Credit Report

Name of Credit Reporting Bureau Mailing Address City, State, Zip

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing for two (2) reasons:

1. To dispute certain information in my credit file; and

2. To have you investigate/re-investigate and remove inaccurate information from my Credit Report and prevent its re-insertion. The item(s) I dispute are encircled on the attached copy of the credit report and further identified by (identify the items by name of source, such as creditor or tax court, etc. and identify type of item, such as credit account, judgment, etc.)This item is (inaccurate or incomplete) because (describe what is inaccurate or incomplete and why). I am requesting that the item be deleted (or whatever specific change you are requesting) to correct the information.(If you are enclosing documents such as copies of canceled checks, payment records, court documents, send copies only, you should always retain the originals — and use the following sentence.)

Enclosed are copies of the following documents supporting my position?

1.

2.

3.

Please reinvestigate this (these) matter(s) and (delete or correct) the disputed items within the time frame required by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and inform me in writing of the outcome. Thank you for your time and consideration in this matter.

Sincerely,________________________

(Signature)Your name

Step 3: File your dispute

Submitting your dispute by mail is the suggested way, but only Equifax and Transunion allows this kind of dispute. Experians requires all disputes to be submitted online.

Here is the 3 Credit Bureaus information.

Equifax

P.O Box 740256

Alanta, GA 30374-0241

Dispute online

Experian

Dispute online

TransUnion

2 Baldwin PlaceP.O. Box 2000

Chester, PA 19022

Dispute online

Step 4: Manage Results

The 3 Credit Bureaus have 30 days to investigate your dispute and update your credit report if the dispute is valid. Once they have investigated your concern, they will send you a letter stating what was updated on your credit report. If you were not able to get a inaccuracy fixed you will need to resubmit your dispute with new documentation.

CreditScoreQuick.com

Top 10 Credit Report Repair SCAMS – Consumer Beware

Friday, February 29th, 2008

I am sure we have all heard that you can get your credit report repaired if you hire a credit restoration company. They can repair it usually as long as you pay them around $1000.00 bucks to do so. According to the FTC, a credit repair company is not supposed to collect money from you until services are rendered. Hmmmmmmm. Good luck finding someone that will do that. Ok, here are the SCAMS.

1. I will increase your Credit Score 150 points in 30 days.
2. I will remove late payments on your credit report, even though you were actually late.
3. Don’t pay collections it hurts your credit
4. We can remove collections even though you owe the debt
5. We can remove Bankruptcies even though it’s still within 7 years.
6. We can remove a foreclosure, even though it’s still within 7 years.
7. We can remove judgments, even though you owe it.
8. We can remove tax liens even though you owe it.
9. If the balanced reporting is incorrect we can get collection removed
10. If the Bureaus do not respond to a dispute within 30days, they have to remove item in question.

I am sorry folks, but if you have debt you owe, it will be on there for 7 years from original collection date. No one can delete a debt you owe. I promise. Here is a good link for FTC facts on credit report repair SCAMS. Don’t get me wrong, there are credit restoration companies out there that provide disputes for inaccurate information, and are not SCAMS. Typically credit repair companies prey on the desperate, and take advantage of them. So be careful. I would also recommend pulling a current copy of your credit report, and make sure everything on there is accurate. You can actually do everything credit repair companies do for a fee for free yourself. You can go here for quick guide on how to dispute your credit report.

Author: Mike Clover

Credit Bureaus address and phone numbers

Monday, February 25th, 2008

Credit Bureaus address and phone numbers are listed here. We have also listed the online dispute links as well. Your one stop resource for all 3 Bureaus.

Bureaus Addresses and Phone numbers:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Alanta, GA 30374
(800) 797-7033

Experian
NCAC
P.O. Box 9595
Allen, TX 75013
(800) 583-4080

Trans Union
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022-2000
(800) 916-8800

On-line dispute for each bureau:

Equifax
Dispute online

Experian
Dispute online

TransUnion
Dispute online

About the Author: Mike Clover is the owner of http://www.creditscorequick.com/. CreditScoreQuick.com is the one of the most unique on-line resources for free credit score report, Internet identity theft software, secure credit cards, and a BlOG with a wealth of personal credit information. The information within this website is written by professionals that know about credit, and what determines ones credit worthiness.

Disclaimer: This information has been compiled and provided by CreditScoreQuick.com as an informational service to the public. While our goal is to provide information that will help consumers to manage their credit and debt, this information should not be considered legal advice. Such advice must be specific to the various circumstances of each person's situation, and the general information provided on these pages should not be used as a substitute for the advice of competent legal counsel.