Credit Help Center

Credit Tip! You will see the addresses for each creditor on the credit report. If it is not there, then you can call customer service to ask them to provide you with the missing information.

If you are considering making a major purchase in the future or have applied for financing and was turned down, a copy of your credit report should be obtained. This can determine what is on your credit report. There are several sites online where you can obtain your credit report for a small fee or sometimes free. The following are types of accounts you may see on your report.

Charge-Offs

Accounts you want to work on first are charge-offs. When a company charges-off your account, they have given up and consider it a loss. You will need to contact the creditor and ask for a re-instatement of your account. Let them know why you defaulted on your account and you are ready to begin payments on the balance. Most companies will understand this and will allow you to take care of this. This will be reported to the credit bureaus that you are taking care of this account.

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Credit Tip! The credit report plays a significant role in the functioning of consumer credit markets. Since loans are advanced based on the credit reports the chances of loans going bad are minimal.

A credit report is a powerful piece of paper. Lenders look at it closely when deciding whether or not to give you a loan. Insurance companies can use it to determine your rates or whether they will cover you at all. Employers can access it and use it as a factor in offering you a job or promotion. With that much significance placed on your credit report, it is absolutely essential that the information it contains paints you in a good light.

Repairing your credit yourself saves you money

According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, consumers can dispute mistakes in their credit report for free. It can be a little time consuming to pull your report, document the error, type up a letter and send it in, so many people hire credit repair agencies to do the boring work for them.

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Credit Tip! Residents of Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont are entitled by state law to one free credit report from a credit-reporting agency per year. Residents of Georgia are entitled to two free credit reports.

Chances are you have seen ads online for free personal credit reports. You may have even clicked on one and received a copy of your credit history. Now that you have all of this information, do you know what to do with it?

Check for inaccuracies

It is very possible that some of the information contained on your credit report isn’t accurate. It can be something as small as an address you no longer live at or something as big as a debt you paid off being reported as outstanding. If you find an inaccuracy, contact the credit bureau and ask them to correct the error.

Check for unusual activity

Does your credit report contain accounts that you never opened. Are there outstanding balances due to companies you have never heard of? If so, someone may have opened accounts in your name and your credit report is paying the price. I

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Credit Tip! Tell the CRA what information you believe is inaccurate on your credit report. Include copies, never originals of documents that support your position.

Navigating a credit report can be a bit confusing but it is important to understand how all of those numbers affect you whether or not you are considered credit worthy. A credit report is broke into four basic sections and each one is important to your credit score.

The first section contains your identifying information

This is just the basic information that identifies who you are. It can include a list of addresses where you have lived, your name and any other names you have gone by, your social security and driver’s license numbers, spouse’s name, date of birth and telephone numbers that have been linked to your name.

The second section contains your credit history

This section will list all of the credit accounts that you have. It

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