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Credit Troubles?
Low Credit Score?

Some, perhaps even much of your low credit score could be the result of errors in your credit report. Statistics show that 79% of all credit reports contain errors, that is over 150,000,000 of the 200,000,000 credit reports. Twenty-five percent (25%) of credit reports studied had errors bad enough to cause denial of credit!

Federal law gives you the right to contact credit bureaus directly and dispute items on your credit reports. You can dispute any and all items that you feel classify as inaccurate, untimely, misleading or unverifiable. If the bureaus cannot verify that the information on their reports is correct, then those items must be deleted.

There is no charge for you to request an investigation. If the credit bureau does not respond within 30 days of your notification of a disputed item, that item must be removed from your credit report.

Keep in mind, only incorrect or unverifiable information can be deleted from your credit report. Accurate negative information remains a part of your record for the time set by the credit industry, at least 7 years from the time it is reported, 10 years for bankruptcy.

Credit troubles usually result from many factors. Making your payments late is one factor; having significant debt is another. Lenders may be reluctant to extend credit to persons who pay their bills late or have significant debt, even though they may have made all their payments.

Learn the dos and do nots of credit consumerism, but know and use your rights as a consumer!

HOW YOUR CREDIT IS DETERMINED

Your Payment History Includes:

Number of accounts paid as agreed

Negative public records or collections

Delinquent accounts:

total number of past due items
how long you've been past due
how long it's been since you had a past due payment

Amounts You Owe:

How much you owe on accounts and the types of accounts with balances

How much of your revolving credit lines you've used--looking for indications you are over-extended

Amounts you owe on installment loan accounts vs. their original balances--to make sure you are you paying them down consistently

Number of zero balance accounts

Length of Credit History:

Total length of time tracked by your credit report

Length of time since accounts were opened

Time that's passed since the last activity

The longer your (good) history, the better your scores

Your New Credit:

Number of accounts you've recently opened and the proportion of new accounts to total accounts

Number of recent credit inquiries

The time that's passed since recent inquiries or newly-opened accounts

If you've re-established a positive credit history after encountering payment problems

In general, checking to make sure you aren't attempting to open numerous new accounts

Types of Credit:

Total number of accounts and types of accounts (installment, revolving, mortgage, etc.)

A mixture of account types usually generates better scores than reports with only numerous revolving accounts (credit cards)

Credit scoring software only considers items on your credit report. Lenders typically look at other factors that aren't included in the report, such as income, employment history and the type of credit you are seeking.