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

Bob Pering asked:




Removing derogatory credit information from your credit reports is the fastest thing you can do to raise your credit scores. Credit bureaus are known for the amount of inaccurate information in credit files, so check your reports regularly and be relentless in removing derogatory credit information in your files.

Start by getting a copy of your credit report. By law you may obtain a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three credit agencies: Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. You can request your report from each by locating them online. Or you can request a report from all three agencies at one time by sending your written request to the Annual Credit Report Request Service at PO Box 105281, Atlanta, GA, 30348.

Once you have copies of your credit report, examine each of them carefully for mistakes and errors.

Removing derogatory credit information in your files begins by disputing errors in your credit reports. Gather any supporting documentation you can find, such as credit card statements or canceled checks. You can dispute items in your credit report if you do not have documentation, but it’s easier when you can back up your disputes with paperwork.

Write a letter to the credit bureau explaining why the deputed item is inaccurate, and include copies of your documentation. Hand write your dispute letter, or, write the letter on your computer. You will have much better success this way, versus using a ready-made dispute form you find on the internet. Be sure to send all communications by certified mail, return receipt requested.

Once the credit bureau receives your dispute letter, the bureau will request verification from the creditor. If the credit bureau does not receive notice back from the creditor in thirty days that your dispute has been denied, removing the disputed information from your report is automatic. You will receive a new copy of your report which will show the disputed item(s) removed.

Should the creditor deny your dispute, file again the following month. Be insistent that they verify your claim. Ask them to send you the name and phone number of the person that verified your claim so you may call them. You are entitled to know why they have denied your dispute and for what reason.

Credit bureaus are known for the amount of inaccurate information in credit files, so check your reports regularly and be relentless in removing derogatory credit information in your files. Removing derogatory credit information from your credit reports is the fastest way to raise your credit scores.

Leon

Divya Mishra asked:




Unsecured lenders and other financial institutions involved in the business of managing and regulating debt in the economy often strive to present themselves as efficient and effective organizations. Credit card issuers will cut off their right hand before they even admit that they might have made a mistake when computing your statement. If they cannot convince you on this point, they will try to confuse you and somehow try to prove that you are the person to blame for the mistake.

Show me one person who has a written confirmation often error in the credit card statement and I will show you a very rare person on this planet. The same is true for credit bureaus as well. They will dispatch your reports as if it is holy writ but the truth is that bulk of these reports often contain the most fundamental and basic errors. This is particularly shocking because the entire economy is based on the credit report of the individual. I

If you have a high credit report, you can open a checking account without any difficulty, get affordable insurance, purchase a car without trouble and leave in your house without losing your self respect. Despite knowing the importance of the credit score, there are numerous errors in the credit report. That is the reason why a well established procedure has been laid down as far as resolution of errors are concerned. You will have to raise a dispute on the information that has been provided.

You will have to formally inform the credit card issuer or unsecured lender and the credit bureau that there is a dispute in your credit report. You will have to submit copies of documents that support your claim. The credit bureau will take thirty days to access the problem and determine whether your claim is right or not. If your claim is accepted as the right version of the report, it shall be incorporated and each and every employer whom you want acted in the past two years will be informed of the change.

The same goes for each and every lender whom you contacted in the past six months. This process may seem like very simple but there always is a possibility of the unsecured lender raising a counterclaim. In such a scenario, the entire affair can become very messy. The fact that you do not know much about finances will work against your favor.

This is why you should make use of the services of professionals. They will step in and complete the entire process and leave you with a credit report that is completely free of errors.

Gilbert

Gary Gresham asked:




Every consumer in America has the right to a free credit report once every year by law as of September 2005. But since that law has passed there has been nothing but confusion.

The web sites that say they are offering this so called free credit report, are asking us to give them our credit card information. Does that sound like a free credit report to you?

You may have even given your credit card number to these companies to sign up for a thirty day trial for a credit service that has almost nothing to do with getting your free credit report.

In all fairness, you can cancel this service after thirty days. But how many people do you think forget and end up with monthly or even annual credit card charges?

In fact, these companies are counting on you forgetting about the thirty day trial and charging that fee on your credit card. But if the law says you get a free report, what’s the deal?

A lot of people are confused about these free credit reports because of how some companies are marketing the free credit report. Hopefully, this information will clear a few things up for you.

For people who just want the bottom line, a free credit report is available at http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com and this is the only official site that helps consumers to obtain their annual free credit report.

This site’s security protocols are excellent with physical and technological security and encryption. That’s important for identity theft purposes because the information on your credit report should be seen by your eyes only.

So if this site is readily available and anyone can get a free credit report once a year, what’s the catch? Here is the catch: the credit report you get from http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com does not have any credit scores.

Now you may be asking, “Then what good is getting this free credit report without a credit score?” There are a few good reasons why you may want to look at your credit report even without a credit score.

Did you know that more than forty percent of all credit reports have errors? If you spot these errors, you can get them cleared up before it affects your credit score. If you contact a credit bureau about an error, they have to clear it up or remove it after thirty days by law.

If you monitor and review your credit report, you can check to be sure that you are not a victim of identity theft. If someone takes over your accounts and charges up thousands of dollars in debt, they can destroy your credit score in a matter of hours.

These are just a couple of good reasons why you want to get your free credit report once a year and inspect it just to be sure everything looks like it should. You can get your free credit report online at http://www.AnnualCreditReport.com or by phone or through the mail.

So where do you get your credit score from? This is where the confusion comes in and here is the answer. The law Congress passed did not say anything about a credit score just one free credit report a year per consumer.

You have to pay a service to get your credit score and some companies are confusing people with the way they are marketing this. They offer you a free credit report and score and many consumers believe it’s their annual free credit report.

But if you have to sign up for a credit service they offer for a 30 day trial period, does that sound free? What these companies are counting on is you forgetting about the 30 day trial and charging a fee on your credit card once that trial period is over.

It’s in the fine print, but how many people actually read that. So here is a good common sense rule of thumb. Any time you have to give your credit card information, ask yourself, “is this really free?”

Many of you probably know this is happening because you have been trapped with this kind of marketing tactic. But for those of you that just want your annual free credit report, you can at least be aware as to what is really going on and have a no nonsense way to get it.

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