The bank world is foreign to many consumers outside of the industry. While many people labor over their Myspace and Facebook profiles and rewrite resumes to best reflect their employment profile, their financial profiles go neglected. Usually, they don’t even think about what their financial situation looks like on paper, until they are denied a loan. You can obtain your credit information and free credit score report through www.AnnualCreditReport.com as part of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Sometimes, you may look at your free credit scores and credit information only to find it rife with errors. First, get your free credit scores online from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion at www.AnnualCreditReport.com, then print them out and highlight any negative information. Circle disputed records. Check the expiration dates of the records. Bankruptcy filing records should have expired 10 years after the first filing date, charge-offs should be gone within 7 years, collection records should expire within 7 years and 180 days after the last late payment, closed accounts should be removed in 7 years, foreclosure records last for 7 years, inquiries will remain on your credit report for 1-2 years but will not hurt your overall score, judgments/court decisions will remain for 7 years after the filing date, late payments of more than 30 days remain for 7 years, repossession records persist for 7 years and tax liens can remain indefinitely, if unpaid, or else 7 years from the paid date.
To file a dispute about your credit information, you should write a dispute letter to each of the three of the credit bureaus, which are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. On the letter, put the date, your address and name, phone number and social security number. Just write “The following data is incorrect and should be updated,” then list each inaccuracy, explaining why it’s wrong and what it should be updated with. Attach a marked copy of your credit score report and include all previous communication, account records or statements that will help verify your version of events. By letter is the best way to dispute with Equifax and TransUnion, although Experian only allows online disputes. The credit bureaus then have 30 days to investigate and repair your credit information. Once they are done, they will write you a letter letting you know what was or was not updated. If you’re not happy with the results, then you can try to resubmit with different documents or go directly to the creditor to resolve.
Often, checking your credit information is the only way of finding an identity theft if you are not using one of the identity theft products such as Life Lock who continually watch your credit information for you and look for any weird activity. If you find something in your credit information that you have absolutely no explanation for, an unpaid loan, a new TV on credit etc. get in touch with the all 3 bureaus immediately and police for information on your next steps. Without any form of protection, taking a look at your credit information is really the only chance to avoid identity theft running out of control with your finances. It won’t prevent it from occurring it but at least it stops it getting worse.
Looking at your credit information can be daunting at first if you’ve had a back track record. The worst thing you can do is put everything off and wait for it to go away. If the creditors are really hounding you and you’re not sure how you’ll have the money to cover it all, then your best bet is going through a credit counselor or debt relief agency. If you have one or two bills that are behind or have paid most of your debts off and are just looking to start anew, then you can handle this. The last 24 months constitute 60% of your credit score, so you can turn things around this year simply by paying your bills regularly, in full and on-time.
