Personal Data Sold - Get your Free Credit Report

Past employees of Roanoke City Public Schools are receiving free credit monitoring services after school officials ended up selling eight computers as surplus units. The hard drives of these computers still stored the personal information of school employees from 2006 onward, and included their names, locations, and Social Security numbers, leaving their personal information at risk for identity theft.

Since this incident occurred, the hard drives have been recovered by school officials, and it is believed that none of the data was used inappropriately. However, due to the questions and concerns the school has been receiving due to this incident, they are offering a year of free credit monitoring services to their employees to ensure that nothing is done with their information due to this data breach.

YOUR RIGHT TO FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS FROM OTHER, "SPECIALTY" CREDIT REPORTING COMPANIES

You also have a right to order free annual credit reports from other "nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies." These are companies that maintain specific types of files on consumers, such as employment history, tenant history, medical records, and insurance claims. There are many specialty CRCs, and each must maintain a toll-free telephone number through which consumers may request a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months.

Neither the FTC nor the trade association of credit bureaus (CDIA) has chosen to publicize contact information for the specialty CRCs, and the Attorney General's Office does not currently have access to a list of these toll-free numbers. However, the following web page maintains a partial list of specialty CRCs and their contact information:

What to do about inaccuracy in your Free Personal Credit Report

• Clearly identify the inaccurate information on your credit report and dispute it, IN WRITING, with both the CRC that issued the report with inaccurate information and any creditors with which the information is associated.
• For more information, review the FTC's summary on disputing credit errors: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre21.shtm
• If accurate information is not removed or reappears, you may wish to consult with a private attorney regarding possible legal actions.
• Here is contact information for the 3 credit reporting agencies and links to their web pages informing consumers how to dispute inaccurate information:
  

Equifax - www.equifax.com
To report fraud, call: 1-800-525-6285
and write: P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
For information on disputing errors, you may visit:
www.econsumer.equifax.com/consumer/sitepage.ehtml?forward=elearning_credit13

Experian - www.experian.com
To report fraud, call: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742)
and write: P.O. Box 9532, Allen TX 75013
For information on disputing errors, you may visit:
www.experian.com/disputes/index.html (online dispute form)

TransUnion - www.transunion.com
To report fraud, call: 1-800-680-7289
and write: Fraud Victim Assistance Division
P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
For information on disputing errors, you may visit:
www.transunion.com/content/page.jsp?id=/personalsolutions/general/data/DisputeCreditReport.xml

• If you believe you are a victim of ID theft, ask for a "fraud alert" to be placed on your file and request that no new credit be granted without your express, personal approval. Ask how long your account will be flagged. Record the expiration date of the fraud alert, and call back as this date approaches if you wish the alert to remain on your file. Review the Attorney General's Consumer Alert on ID theft for further information: www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-17343_18163-80479--,00.html
  
  

What Should You Look for In you Free Personal Credit Report

When you receive your reports, check each section carefully and determine whether you believe the information is correct. Your report could alert you to fraudulent activity being carried on in your name by an ID thief or other inaccurate information that could affect your ability to obtain a loan.

In particular, be sure to review:

• Your personal information: are there addresses or variations on your name that are wrong?

• Statements of credit accounts: are there credit card accounts or other debts that you are not familiar with?

• Potentially negative entries: are there unpaid debts listed on accounts you never opened?

• Public record information: is this information accurate?

What is in your Free Personal Credit Report

WHAT'S IN YOUR CREDIT REPORT?

Your credit report contains a collection of sensitive personal and financial information about you gathered from a variety of sources. You may view a sample credit report from Experian at:
www.experian.com/credit_report_basics/pdf/samplecreditreport1.pdf

You can expect your credit report to contain:

• Personal information, including your current and other recent addresses, telephone numbers, Social Security Number, and birth information.
• A detailed credit history, including information on loans, credit cards, and timeliness of payments.
• "Public" records, such as bankruptcies, judgments, liens, etc.
• A list of all persons or organizations who have requested a copy of your credit report in the last six months. This list may be long and could include:
  

• Requests by creditors;

• Requests by you, the consumer;

• Requests for promotional purposes.
  (These include prescreened credit offers, which you can elect not to receive by calling 888-567-8688 or completing the online form at www.optoutprescreen.com.)

Your report may also contain a statement of dispute you, or one of your creditors, may have submitted regarding a disputed item on your credit report. (Information on disputing errors on your report is set forth below.)

Before you Order Your Free Annual Credit Report

BEFORE YOU ORDER YOUR FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS

• The three CRCs have established a single service for consumers to use when ordering free credit reports. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO
  ORDER FREE CREDIT REPORTS DIRECTLY FROM THE CREDIT REPORTING AGENCIES.

• You will be asked to provide sensitive information in order to receive your report. This is necessary to prevent ID thieves from obtaining copies of other people's credit reports.

Michigan Identiry Theft Victim

Reviewing your credit reports can help you detect fraudulent activity early, allowing you to take effective steps to limit the headaches you may encounter if you are a victim of identity theft. Knowing what's in your report before you apply for a loan or a job may also be helpful.

You have a right to order your free annual credit report from each of the three major consumer credit reporting companies (CRC): Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. However, it is not necessary for you to order all three at the same time.

If you are a victim of identity theft, you are entitled to place a fraud alert on your file and to receive copies of your credit report from each of the three CRCs free of charge, regardless whether you have previously ordered your free annual reports. For more information on ID theft, including advice for victims and tips on prevention, review the Attorney General's Consumer Alert on ID Theft at www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-17343_18163-80479--,00.html

Michigan Annual Free Credit Report

FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS -
WHAT CONSUMERS SHOULD KNOW

Michigan consumers can order a free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting companies every year. Consumers can order their free annual credit reports by mail, by telephone, or online. To maximize your protection against fraudulent activity, order one report from a different company every fourth month.

ORDER YOUR FREE ANNUAL CREDIT REPORTS

• By Mail
  Complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form available online at the only truly free credit report website form is available through the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) website: http://www.ftc.gov/freereports

• By Telephone
  Call 877-322-8228 (toll free).

• Online
  www.annualcreditreport.com
  Caution: Misspelling this site or using another site with similar words will take you to a site that will try to sell you something or collect your personal information.

Why Pay For a Credit Report When You Can it Free

The annual credit report program has been actually formulated to help the consumers to stay updated, get fair treatment and fight against the identity theft. In fact, now one can call up the prominent credit agencies and ask for a free credit report. However, in order to get a free report you would need to provide your name, social security number, address and your date of birth to the bureaus.

Why To Pay For Credit Report when You Can Get Your FICO Score Free

As per the law one can get credit report for free but he needs to make payment for the credit score. Until and unless the FTC decides to provide you free FICO score you must try to find out other means which can help you to get your Fico score for free. It is actually a good idea to keep a tab on the credit score periodically in order to avoid and fraudulent activities. In order to get a free credit report you need to visit the AnnualCreditReport.com a website which is jointly operated by the 3 prominent U.S credit reporting agencies. Apart from this option there are other ways which would help you to get a free report. Check them out:

As per the law you can get a free report if:

* You are getting certain public welfare assistance.
* You think there are certain inaccuracies complimenting your report due to identity theft or fraud.
* Since you are unemployed you would definitely try to get a job in the next 60 days.

Tax Liens and Credit Reports

A tax lien showing up on your credit or against your property can be one of the most devastating credit problems you can have. The IRS does not tend to be very flexible and they will take aggressive action to make sure that they are paid in full.

A tax lien showing on your credit will create havoc for you when you try to get new credit. You will definitely not be able to get a home mortgage and it will be difficult to get credit for car loans, student loans and even credit cards. Another problem is that even after you pay the tax lien off it can show on your credit report for as long as 7 years. If you don't pay it off it can show up for 15 years or longer.

In most cases you are better off trying to pay off the tax lien rather than fight it. Sometimes you can negotiate with the IRS and settle for a lesser amount but you can rarely get away with not paying them at all. The IRS will always find you and they will be after you until you pay them off or your die in which case they will still try to get their money from your estate. That is just the way it is. We've all heard about "death and taxes".

But after you do pay off the lien, whether by paying in full or negotiating, you need to do what you can to get the negative listing removed from your credit report. If you don't it can have a negative effect for up to 7 years and longer.

In order to get a tax lien removed from you credit report you must submit a dispute to the credit reporting agencies. Make sure you submit a duplicate dispute to all of the big three, TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You have the right to dispute any unfair or misleading credit because of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Learn about your rights and enforce them so that you can have peace in your financial future.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, any consumer has the right to dispute any items that are listed on the report. False and inaccurate information is often reported on credit and if you have already paid a tax lien you can ask to have the negative listing removed from your credit. You need to do this so that you can start with a clean score and move on.

The credit reporting agencies are private, non-government enterprises that are in the business to make profits. Their profits come from compiling and selling your information and they do not have a priority to make sure that the information is correct. It is your responsibility to make sure that your credit report is accurate and your information is portrayed as positively as possible.

You can make an effort to repair your credit and get negative items removed either by hiring a professional credit repair company or by doing it yourself. Either way you are responsible for making sure that your credit report and credit scores are shown in the best possible light so it is smart to take steps to repair any discrepancies on your report including tax liens.

Errors on My Credit Report?

The sad news almost every person in the United States has some type of error on their credit report. This is a true fact! Therefore, more than likely there is some type of error on your credit report. Remember, credit bureaus are run by humans and every person can make mistakes that could be nothing more than a typo, but can work against you and give you a bad FICO score. There are many different errors that may be found on your credit report such as a person with your same first and last name but with a different social security number. This can be very detrimental to your overall credit score.

You may not realize this but besides errors there can be things on your credit report that are detrimental that are not errors but blatant bad reports that were placed there intentionally by debtors. Today, all across America, many apartment complexes do a number on individuals moving from their complex. It does not matter if you pay your rent on time each and every month, give a 30-day notice, and clean the apartment. Landlords can and will keep your deposit and add things that you need to pay for such as another months rent since they could not rent out your apartment due to the residences needing painting or other damages being fixed. In almost every case, the manager of the complex will find some reason to keep your deposit and ensure that you still owe more money. They may not let you know this at all, but will report the information to the credit bureau. This can become a major headache if you wish to rent another apartment. You will not learn that this has been done, unless you check your credit report or try to apply to another rental agency.

If there are errors or discrepancies on your credit report you may find it hard to find employment, rent a home or apartment, or even receive a home loan. This is the main reason, that it is so important to receive a copy of your credit every year.
If you do find errors, you will need to contact the credit bureau that is in charge of the false information. You will need to show proof that the information is false. In the letter you send to the credit bureau, be sure to include your full name, address, and the details of the error or discrepancies you have found on your credit report.

The agency will look into the error and supply with you the information you need to correct to the errors. If the error is false, such as a typo, it will be corrected without any effort on your part.

Remove Bad Credit and Clean Up Credit Report Ratings

If you want to know some initial steps on clearing up bad credit then you'll want to read this article. Discussion will be made as to your first initial steps to clean up credit report inaccuracies. Then some discussion on how credit scores are determined and how to communicate with the credit bureaus.

After reading this article you will have an idea of the steps you need to take to identify bad spots on your credit, how to understand the credit numbers in your account and how to communicate with a good chance of clearing your record of bad marks.

So the very first step is to take an analysis of where you're at financially. Everyone is entitled to one free report from each of the 3 credit reporting agencies. Sending a request to Experian, TransUnion and Equifax is the order of the day.

When you get the reports back you are looking for discrepancies in anything that is identified. Whether a late payment was reversed or never was needs to be noted. These reports are the crux of the FICO score and anything derogatory in them will certainly affect your score.
Understanding how FICO derives your credit score is something that you will need to do your due diligence in so that you understand how even late payments come into play and affect that score. FICO scores range from 300 to 850. In actuality anything over 700 is considered an excellent score and only a few percentage of the people actually have 850.

Getting back to the reports that you received and noting discrepancies. You will need to contact the bureaus immediately and correct the problem. Do not email but send a letter. This makes a better impact knowing that you have taken the time to manually write a letter to correct a wrong here. That will go a long ways in getting a better response than by email.

As always any type of communication that you have with the credit bureaus make copies. It always seems to happen that the more important documents get misplaced, lost, mismanaged or whatever else the case may be. If you have copies of every correspondence that you send concerning your financial plight the better off you will be.

So in understanding the importance of that credit score is directly associated with your credit report you need to know what they are thinking of you. Get those reports and make sure that they are accurate, if not then start writing those letters to get your FICO score higher.

5 Things to Get Off Your Credit Report Quickly

There are five different things that you should always avoid getting on your credit report, as they can be incredibly damaging and hard to get rid of when you want to repair credit fast.

Foreclosures
If you are unable to make payments on your home, then the bank will more than likely move into the foreclosure process, and attempt to sell your home to someone in the hopes of reclaiming their money. Once this happens, there is nothing you can do, and even if you manage to cut a deal and keep your home, the negative effects of not paying on time can harm your credit score as well. These detrimental processes take seven years to be removed from your credit report, and make it almost impossible to repair credit fast.

Bankruptcies
This is perhaps the single worst thing you could do to your credit. Bankruptcies stay on your credit for ten years, and can likely keep you from getting credit extended to you for any reason. This does seem like a grand idea when you are faced with debt that you can't pay, but it should be stressed that if you want to repair credit fast, then you should avoid bankruptcies at all costs.

Charge Offs
Charge offs occur when you fail to make payments on a debt for 3-6 months in a row. The creditors will then write your debt as a charge off, and can submit or sell it to a collection agency. A charge off will stay on your credit for seven years, even if you pay the debt through a collection agency at a later date. So, charge offs should be avoided if possible.

Tax Liens
There are several kinds of tax liens that can be detrimental to your credit report. When you owe the government state or federal taxes that you do not pay, then they can place a tax lien against you, which will not allow you to get financed for anything until the debt is paid. If you wanted to repair credit fast with a tax lien, the odds are against you.

Judgments of Any Kind
When you fail to make payments and collection agencies have no luck collecting a debt from you, they can take you to court and get a judgment for that debt against you. Judgments are horrible for your credit score because they show that not only did you not pay, but you had to be taken to court as a drastic method for a company to get what you owe them. Judgments also stay on your credit for seven years, which gives them plenty of time to be seen.

The five things above are items that you never want to see on your credit report. While late payments are enough to lower your score significantly, these items could make it almost impossible for you to repair credit fast.

Credit Score Vs Credit Report

When getting a loan, whether for a house, car or big purchase item, a financial institution will look at your credit score to see what kind of risk they will incur by loaning you this money.
A credit score comes from a credit report. A credit report details your credit availability and your habits: Do you pay your bills on time; What are your monthly payments; How many credit cards do you have; What is the line of credit on those cards; What is the balance; Do you have a mortgage; Have you filed for bankruptcy?

A lender will look at this report and decide whether the loan is a good or bad risk.
When you apply or buy something with your credit card, pay a bill (or don't pay a bill), take out a mortgage or finance your car with the dealership, the information gets report to one or all three of the reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. The agencies collect this data then sell the report to businesses and lenders to they can evaluate your application.

The three agencies use proprietary formulas to calculate the information on the report. As not all creditors (card companies, banks, landlord, department stores, etc.) report to all three agencies and each calculates the information differently so your score will differ from each agency.
There are different formulas for getting a credit score from the credit reports depending on what kind of credit or loan you are applying for. The most famous is the FICO score which is used for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. The formula was developed by Fair Isaac and Company (Fair Isaac and Company - FICO) and is used to show the possible loan default risk.

A lender will pull your report from all three of the reporting agencies or just one and use the FICO software to create your score. The FICO score assigns a number from 850 (great) all the way down to 300 (horrid). The average consumer in American has a score of around 620. As mentioned above, not all creditors (credit card companies, banks, landlord, department stores, etc.) report to each of the three agencies and since each agency uses a different method to calculate your credit information your score will differ from each agency, sometimes as much as 50 - 100 points. A score might look something like this: 650, 620, 642, with the lender taking the middle score as the average, so that this person has a score of 642.

The following factors go into calculating your score:

1. Your bill paying history. Do you pay your bills on time?
2. Your loans and credit card debt.
3. How long have you had credit?
4. How many lines of credit do you have?
5. Have you opened up new lines of credit or have there been multiple inquires.

Could there be errors on your personal credit report?

The sad messages nearly each person in the United States have a kind disturbance on their credit information. This is an applicable fact! Therefore more there is than probably a kind disturbance on your credit information. Do not remind, credit bureaus to run oneself calmly from humans and each person can errors make, the anything be could more than a Typo, but can against you work and you a bad FICO notch give.

There are many different disturbances, those on your credit information like a person with your same first and surname to be found can however with another social security number. This can be very harmful to your total credit note notch. They cannot realise this, but except disturbances there can be things on your credit information, which are harmful that disturbances are not however glaring bad of report, which were set there intentionally by the debtors. Today all do many apartment complexes a number on the individuals, who move from their complex over America. It does not constitute, if you pay in time each month to your rent, give 30 a daily message and clean the dwelling.

Landlords can and your deposit will hold and will add will rent things, which must pay you for like another months, since they could not rent your dwelling out because of the domiciles, which the painting or other damage are locally fixed need. In nearly each case the manager of the complex finds something reason to hold and guarantee your deposit that you still more funds owe. They cannot inform but become you possibly this at all, the information the credit bureau to report. This can become main headache, if you liked to rent another dwelling.

Them experienced not that this was done, it are you your credit information or attempt examine, in order to apply to another renting agency. If there are disturbances or discrepancies on your credit information, which hard you can find her, to find occupation rents you a house or a dwelling, or you even receive a housing loan. This is the principal reason, to receive which, which it is so important, a copy of your credit note each year. If you find disturbances, you must associate with the credit bureau, which is responsible for the wrong information.

They must show proof that the information is wrong. In the letter you send your complete name safe to the credit bureau, are, to include address and the details of the disturbance or the discrepancies which found you on your credit information. The agency examines the disturbance and the supply material with you the information, which must repair you to the disturbances. If the disturbance, how a Typo is wrong, it repaired without any effort on your subject.

How can I get my free personal credit report?

Getting your credit report is very easy. One thing you should know is that you are entitled to get a free copy of your once a year from the three bureaus, Experian, Transunion and Equifax.
It is advisable for you to get your report from each of the three bureaus. I will show you the easy ways you can get them but first, I will explain to you in the next two paragraphs why you need to get your report from the three of them.

The first reason is that not all creditors send information to the three bureaus. Some creditors report to only one of the bureaus, some creditors choose to report to any two of them, while some creditors may prefer to furnish the three bureaus with account of your financial habit.
A second reason is that the three agencies, Experian, Transunion and Equifax each use different methods to calculate your scores. The differences in the methods they use will definitely reflect in the score each of them arrives at.

There are three different ways to get your copies.

One method is on the internet. You can visit the website annualcreditreport dot com and follow the instructions on the page to download a free copy from Experian, Equifax and Transunion. You will be required to enter information which will verify your true identity before you will be given access. The reason for this is to prevent unauthorized people from getting your file information without your permission.

A second method you can use is by telephone. Call this toll free number to get yours for free by telephone - (877) 322-8228.

A third option you can also use in obtaining your credit report is by mail. Write a simple letter requesting your files and send it to the following address:

Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281 Atlanta, GA 30348-5281

Remember that as a consumer, you are entitled to get a free copy from Equifax, Transunion and Experian once a year from each of the credit bureaus. This is because the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act which was signed into law in December 2003 gives you the right to do so.

Clean up your Personal Credit Report to get Cheaper Loans

With the state of the economy, many people are lead to believe that there is no way they can get cheap loans, especially if they have a bad credit score. If you have a terrible FICO score then you are generally not going to be able to find a bank or lender that is going to cut you a break on the interest rate. This means the more your monthly payments are going to be and the higher the amount you are ultimately paying for something.

The good news is even with an economy in a little trouble, you can still secure loans with low interest rates if you have a good FICO credit score to back you up. If you already have bad credit -- simply because of young age, lack of knowledge, or a circumstance completely out of your control -- there is a way to fix it all. And one of the easiest ways to do this is to clean up your credit report.

There are ways that you can use to clean up your credit report. You may not be able to make it completely perfect right away but you can surely improve it enough that you will be able to get a car loan or a mortgage with the lowest possible rate. Here are the steps:

1. The first thing you will want to do is pull your credit report. Everyone is entitled to a free report from each one of the credit reporting agencies each and every year. Look for any and all discrepancies that could be affecting your current score. Fraud, unfair reporting, and simple mistakes happen all of the time and they can be fixed. Having such problems fixed could greatly increase your overall credit score.

2. You will want to look at the debt you do rightfully have. Sometimes having too many open credit cards will affect your credit score even if they are not all maxed out. If you have more then two credit cards open you need to figure out which ones would be the most valuable to you in the event of an emergency and work on closing out the others. Once you have closed the unwanted accounts your credit report will start to shape up.

3. Have you exceeded your limit on some credit cards? If so it may be worth looking into tapping into your savings or taking up a second or part time job in order to get yourself out of debt.

4. Make sure that your bills are your priority. You have to make sure that all of your bills are paid and paid on time. By making sure that you are giving your creditors something positive to report to credit reporting agencies you are on the right track to bringing your credit report back to good standing and secure cheap loan deals.

Judgement Record on your Personal Credit Report

Your credit score is probably something you never pay much attention to throughout life. However, once you rating begins to drop, this can have an adverse effect on your ability to borrow money. This is usually when you start to take notice.

So why might you find a Judgment On your Credit Report?

A county court judgment usually occurs when you owe money to one of your creditors and they sue you for failure to keep up with the monthly repayments. The first mistake that many of us make, is that you are aware that you are falling behind with payments, but fail to do anything about it. As your debt rises from additional monthly and late payment charges, things get more difficult. Then the collections telephone calls start. Eventually, you turn a blind eye and find yourself deeper in debt and unable to meet your level of repayments.

I'm not sure why. Is it fear, embarrassment or pride? However, we all have a tendency to try and sweep problems under the carpet. This, unfortunately, is when further complications occur. If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are unable to cope with the tide of mounting debts, i urge you, the first thing to do is swallow your pride or overcome your fear/embarrassment and approach your lender.

What does a Judgment on your Credit Report mean to you?

Once you have a judgment on your credit report, this will stay there for up to 7 years. Even if you clear the debt, this will still appear of your credit report as a satisfied judgment. This, of course, will sound as a warning to any potential lenders. You may well be considered a "high risk" for many years to come.

What Should I do next?

The first thing to do is ensure that the details held on your credit file are up to date and free from errors. You can order a free credit report once a year from the three credit report agencies. This is an opportunity for you to see how creditors view you. If you come across any errors or wish to dispute anything, you should immediately contact the credit reference agency. You will also find there are many ways in which to remove things such as judgments, late-pays and defaults.

Reading your Personal Credit Report (part 2)

Now you also want to make sure that your credit limit is being reported correctly. If you have a limit on your credit card of $15,000 but it shows that your limit is only $10,000 then this difference will hurt your credit score. Even a limit of $2000 but showing $1000 will hurt your credit score. So make sure that your limit is correct and again, dispute the limit if it is not correct.

You have verified the date and limit on the account, so now it is time to review your balance. Your credit score is based on Age of the Account and the next part is the Debt to Credit ratio. The ratio is based on what your credit limit is compared to the balance you are carrying on your account. To get the best assistance to your credit score keeping the ratio less than 30% is best. So if you have a limit of $1000, you should not carry a balance of more than $300 to keep your account helping your credit score. If you can do each account independently then that is best, but you could just add all of the accounts together and then add together all of the limits on the accounts will tell you what your "total" ratio will be. That is why the credit limit and balance on the accounts are so critical to make sure that they are accurate.

Finally, you should review any late payments that were made. If you made some payments late and know that you did, then you can verify if the late payments are accurate. If you made payments on line, then you can verify the dates as well. But if you made payments by check and mailed them in, you will have a difficult time determining exactly what date the creditor received your payment. Checking your statement to see when the check cleared the bank will be the only confirmed date that you can back up. By making payments online, you will get confirmation numbers and dates of when payments were received. It is better for you to setup online banking whenever possible to help you keep up on your payments.

So reading your credit report is basically very easy. Check your personal information, then review the account details and finally check your payment history. Once you have those things accurate you can be sure that your credit report is as accurate as it can be. The more accurate the report the better for you. Reports with lots of discrepancies can be a problem, not only for you, but also for any lenders considering giving you a new credit account.

Accuracy is critical for all consumers concerning their credit report. 79% of everyone who has a credit report has some inaccuracies on their report. Taking the time to dispute and correct your report will make your credit report better for everyone. Take the time once a year to review your report and dispute anything that is not accurate.

Reading your Personal Credit Report part 1

When you look at your credit report for the first time, it may seem like your reading something in a foreign language. But the truth is your reading detail and numbers that may hold the key to your future. It is important that you take the time to read your report carefully and clearly. This will help you understand how the information it contains is affecting your credit score.

Start with the basics on your report. Verify that all of the information contained under your personal information. Although it won't really affect your credit score, it is important that the information is accurate. If you see information that is not yours, then you will want to dispute that information. False information can lead to someone using the information to gain access to your personal information. Then you will become a victim of Identity Theft.

After you have reviewed the personal information and marked which items need to be disputed, then you can start by looking at each listing on your credit report. Each listing will have several parts of information being reported. The first part being reported is the details on the account. The date that the account was opened, dollar amount of the account (or High Limit), monthly balance on the account, who the account is with and then finally any payments made to the account that were on time or late. The next part of the information being reported is the payment history. This information may be listed from 24 to 48 months. It will show during that time what, if any, payments were made late. Any information on your credit report that appears negatively such as a late payment can lead to negative reporting and a bad credit score. Bad credit will hurt you as many things today are being based on your credit score.

On the first part of the information, it is important that you verify the date that the account was opened. The account starting date can help your credit score by being older. If the account was off by 1 year it could affect your credit score by quite a bit. So you want to keep track of when you start accounts. Make sure that the credit bureaus report them correctly. Dispute any dates that are incorrect and make sure that they get updated to the right dates.