Faq’s on Credit Report

1. What is a credit report?

A credit report is a document that gives detailed information about your financial life. Basically, it reflects your current and previous account information.

2. Do I need a credit report?

Yes, a credit report reveals your creditworthiness. Usually, lenders approve loan, based on your credit report. They also set the interest rates based on the fact that how regularly you repay your loan amount. Moreover, regular monitoring of your credit report helps you to assess your credit condition and take the necessary steps to overcome it.

3. From where do I get a credit report?

You can get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three different companies—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. This free credit file can be requested through www.annualcreditreport.com as well.In order to pull out a credit report, you will have to provide some information like, your name, current and previous addresses, telephone number, social security number, and date of birth. These bureaus generally do not share information with each other. So, the content of the credit report may vary. However, pulling three different copies is wise.

You may contact the credit bureaus at the three different addresses:

Equifax

P.O. Box 105873

Atlanta,GA 30348

http://www.equifax.com (800) 685-1111

Experian (formerly TRW)

P.O. Box 2104

Allen,TX 75013-2104

http://www.experian.com (888) 397-3742

Trans Union

Consumer Disclosure Center P.O. Box 1000

Chester, PA 19022

http://www.transunion.com (800) 916-8800 or(800) 888-4213

4. What information can I find in a credit report?

You can find four types of information in a credit report:

1.Identifying Information:

Here you may find your name, address, social security number and year of birth.

2. Credit Information:

It includes, your account information, retailers, companies, other lenders. Usually the listed accounts comprise of the type of loan, like mortgage loan, student loan, your credit limit, your loan amount, the date you opened the account and if you have paid your loan on time in two years time.

3. Public Record Information:

You can find information on Tax liens, monetary judgments and state and county court records on bankruptcy under this section.

4. Recent Inquiries:

This part will reflect the names of every person who pulled out a copy of your credit report in the past two year.

5. Is it a must to regularly check my credit report? Why?

Yes, always be updated about your account information.

If you do not check on your credit transaction frequently, you may tend to skip your loan payments unknowingly. As a result, you can receive unwanted surprises, like creditor calls, letters from creditors demanding a huge interest and so on. Besides, credit report errors are very common. So if you do not asses your credit report frequently, you may not know about those errors.

If you don’t have time to do this, you may want to consider contracting a credit report monitoring service from any of the three bureaus. You have to get just one of them and it will cover the other two.

6. In case of any error in my credit report whom should I contact?

If you find any error in your credit report, contact the consumer reporting agency instantly. They might take nearly 45 days in rectifying the error.

Get Free Credit Report:Getting free credit reports is a crucial step in protecting your credit, but getting the report is only half of your responsibility. You need to know where to go for your free credit reports and just what to look for once you get them.