Free Credit Bureau Report

Jesse B. Smith asked:




This is a frequently asked question. With tough times upon us, more and more people are finding it difficult to get their bills paid on time. This, in turn, means that these same people are reported to the credit reporting agencies as late and the late payment is reported to lenders who request your credit report.

A “late payment” as the term implies is any payment on a credit associated account which is received by the creditor after the due date. The only thing that matters is that the payment was late. It does not matter if the payment was one day late or thirty days late, it is still considered late. Additionally, you will be charged a late payment penalty on any payment made after the due date and these are normally pretty stiff penalties.

To remove overdue payments from your credit report, you will need to obtain a copy of your credit report. You can do this by contacting one of the three credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. These companies are legally required to provide you with one copy of your credit report every twelve months.

Though the credit reports may vary slightly in their layout, they all contain the same types of information. You should be able to easily and quickly ascertain how each credit report lists entries showing overdue payments and should report the number of late payments you have made over a given period of years.

Though, consumers understand that making payments late is not a good thing, they normally don’t understand the far-reaching consequences. Payment punctuality can count for over 30% of your total credit score. Because of this, late payments can severely affect credit applications which you submit to a lender.

The first thing you can try in order to remove late payments from your credit report is to contact the creditor directly and ask that it remove the overdue payments. This is often successful, however, if you habitually make late payments, it may be less likely.

If contacting the creditor is unsuccessful, you should write the credit reporting bureau that reports the overdue payment and request that the late notation be removed. You should include documentation which proves your claim and be sure to retain copies of all correspondence to and from the credit bureau. If the credit bureau cannot verify within 30 days that the payment was late, it must remove the entry.

Of course, it is always easier to try to stop the situation from occurring in the first place. If you know you will be late paying a bill, contact the creditor and explain the situation to them. Many times creditors will work with you to agree on a payment plan.

Any legitimate late payment entry can remain on your credit report for up to seven years. Instead of letting this cause havoc with your credit score, work with your creditors to keep the late payment from showing up on your credit report.

Joann

Mark Andrade asked:




In addition to disputing incorrect information on your credit report, you can also add accounts to it that make you look more credit worthy. If, when you review your report, you noticed accounts that were not listed on it that paint you in a positive light, you can ask the credit reporting agencies to include these accounts on your report. Doing so will help in your quest to build a more positive credit rating and higher credit score.

There are three types of information you might want to have added to your credit history to build your score:

Explanation of any incomplete or disputed information Positive account histories not included in your report Information demonstrating reliable payment and employment, stability

Often credit reports don’t include accounts that you might expect to find. For instance, some major commercial lenders don’t report mortgages or car loans. Also, local banks or credit unions frequently don’t provide information to credit reporting agencies.

If your credit report is missing credit histories for accounts you pay on time, send the credit reporting agencies a Letter Requesting Inclusion of Accounts, along with copies of recent account statements. Ask the credit bureau to add information on these accounts to your file. While the agencies aren’t required to add account histories, they often do, but you might be charged a fee.

Another option is to go straight to your creditor and ask that they report the information directly to the credit reporting agencies. However, some creditors categorically refuse to do this as they only report to one or two agencies and won’t consider changing their standard business practices. But it’s worth a try.

You may find that credit histories for accounts you pay on time are only missing from one or two credit reports. The third report might already include all your accounts or maybe you focused on cleaning up that report first. If this applies to you, send the agencies with the missing information a copy of your all-inclusive report with a letter asking the missing data be added to your file.

Creditors also like to see verification of stability so consider asking any evidence you have of that be added to your account. Creditors are most likely to add updated information on employment and residences because it’s used in evaluating credit applications. However, if your report is missing data or contains obsolete or incorrect information on your phone number, date of birth, or social security number it is beneficial to update those as well to reduce the risk of account mix-ups.

Once you’ve repaired your credit, request a copy of your report from each credit bureau. You are entitled to one free credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies annually. Look for anything old or inaccurate. Conducting an annual credit check and adding positive accounts previously omitted, can help ensure you maintain the highest credit ratings possible and avoid being a victim of identify theft.

Manuel

Davion Wong asked:




There are various ways of getting your free 3 credit bureau report considering that the government has a mandate to give every citizen his own free copy of the credit report once a year. This will give you the chance to track down and monitor your financial information and verify the authenticity of the details recorded in your profile.

There are many credit-reporting bureaus around offering to give you your free yearly copy of this important document; however, the government designated the three main credit-reporting agencies as the official source of your personal financial record, and they are the Experian, the TransUnion and the Equifax. Therefore, if you want to get your financial profile, it is best to get your free-report from these agencies.

Every time you apply for a loan or credit card, your payment behavior with them will be recorded in this report; hence, they should ideally report them to each of the three main reporting agencies in order to make your profile consistent. However, this is not always the case in reality because sometimes there are some creditors who only report them to one agency.

For example, your payment record with a certain credit card company is submitted to the Experian only; without bothering to submit them to TransUnion and Equifax. Consequently, your score for Experian is different with your grade in Transunion and Equifax as a result of absence of your additional profile in the two reporting agencies. Hence, it is important to regularly check your free 3 credit bureau report every year in order to confirm the accuracy of the information contained in your report. This will greatly improve your rating if you have an excellent record.

Where to get your free credit bureau report? One way to get your copy is to request them individually from each of the main agencies mentioned herein. They are tasked by the government to supply you with your free financial record every year upon request.

Another method is to get them online through their web site where the three main official financial institutions have combined their services in one site at AnnualCreditReport.com where you can initiate your request. This method offers more convenient process in obtaining this important document because you don’t need to make three requests from each of the major reporting companies; you only make one request and you will get your free 3 credit bureau report.

Harold

Ann Richter asked:




Have you ever wondered just what kind of information is in your credit report? It’s a good idea to contact a credit bureau to get that free copy that each individual bureau is required by Federal law to supply you with each year. This is about the only way you have of finding out your credit score, or to see if anyone has tried to get a credit card in your name. In this age of identity fraud, this happens more often than you might think.

Where are the Credit Bureaus?

There are four major consumer credit reporting agencies that serve the entire United States. They are -

Equifax

1.800.685.1111

P.O. Box 740241

Atlanta, GA 30374

TransUnion

1.800.888.4213

P.O. Box 1000

Chester, PA 19022-1000

Experian

1.888.397.3742

P.O. Box 2002

Allen, TX 75013

Innovis

1.800.540.2505

P.O. Box 1358

Columbus, OH 43216 -1358

How do Credit Bureaus Work?

When you applied for your very first credit card or loan, one of these four credit bureaus started a file on you, which included where you work and how much your income was at that time. As you moved up in the world, accumulating more credit cards, mortgage and car loans, and possibly student loans as well, these have kept tabs on you, duly noting each salary increase, job change, each account and payment, and every purchase made on your credit cards. Whenever you applied for credit, the lender will get your information from the credit bureau.

How Do I Get My Information from a Credit Bureau?

By law, you have a right to see your credit file, and not just the once a year free report that each of the four major bureaus offer. If you have any of the following criteria, you should contact one of the four big guys above at any time.

Turned down for credit, or denied a job or insurance coverage because of something in your credit file If you are out of work, and will be searching for employment during the next 60 days. If you are on welfare If there are any errors in your file because of fraud or identity theft

If you have none of these problems, and just are curious as to what is in your file, the best way to keep a close check on what’s going on is to take advantage of the freebies offered by the big four. Each limits you to one report per year, but you can play the role of smart consumer, and use this rule to your advantage. Order a report from one company, then in a few months, order another from a different company. With the proper timing, you can end up with a free credit report four times a year if you contact a different company each time.

Whether you just are curious about what kind of information is in your file, or whether you suspect identity theft, start with any of these four major credit bureaus. In a world where very little is free, it’s nice to know that you can check up on something so important at no charge.

Theodore

David Maillie asked:




Many people have and suffer from bad or marginal credit. This does not mean they are a bad person as bad credit can happen as a result of a sudden unplanned illness or emergency, a job layoff, etc… Many families do not have sufficient savings to ride out a serious and costly emergency or job loss. Actually, according to MSN, many families are living only one paycheck away from bankruptcy and this is not good. To stop this one needs to put reigns on all unnecessary spending, but we will talk more about this further on.

The first step anyone with possibly bad credit needs to take is to find out the exact extent of your credit. You may have only seen 1 credit report or only been told what might be on your record by a bank or loan manager or finance manager, but did you know there are really 3 separate credit reporting agencies and each has a different report and score? Just because one credit report shows as bad doesn’t necessarily mean the others do, and vice versa, if one is good the other two may be quite the opposite. Usually, as a rule, they are similar, but negative items or entries do tend to stay longer on some then others and some tend to have more errors in their entry reporting.

Go online to any of the three major credit bureaus (Just Google the names of Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) and pay to have your all three in one report with credit score pulled. You want all three as they can and probably will be slightly different. The report is necessary so you can actually measure and understand exactly how bad it is and what needs to be done to improve and fix it. A all three in one report is around $40 to $50 and worth it. Free reports which you can receive per recent federal laws will only give one credit bureau and no score (how do you know where you stand without a score unless you are a finance manager or work at a bank loan department?)

If your score is 600 and above your credit is marginal, but not bad. You won’t have too much to repair. If your credit is 500 or below you probably have a lot of negative entries, possible tax liens, judgments, repos (car repossessions), a possible bankruptcy, and/or other serious negative influences and entries in your reports. A low or bad credit score will take more work and effort, but you can still achieve a much higher credit rating and fairly quickly.

Now, that you have your credit report and scores, find out which is the most important credit reporting bureau for your area of the country (each bureau has a particular area of influence). The easiest way to do this is to contact your local new car dealer and ask the finance manager what credit report they most commonly use to establish credit. Usually it is only one and that is the one that will be most influential in your area and the first one you should repair.

Norma