compare credit report – transunion experian equifax

November 16, 2010

Cleaning Up My Transunion Credit – How Long Does it Take?

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 2:22 pm
Tony Banks asked:




Transunion is one of the three main credit reporting agencies. The other two are Experian and Equifax. Each of which sell their version of your files to lenders that you are looking to do business with. In this article I want to give you an idea of how long it takes to improve your Transunion rating and score.

The first thing you need to understand is the fact that there are two ways you can improve your Transunion rating. First to have old negatives deleted or corrected and the second way would be to begin rebuilding a payment history with a creditor on an account such as a credit card or even department store card or some other form of revolving credit.

You first want to take a look at your file and see what needs to be deleted. Which accounts are on your report have “expired” according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If such accounts exist on your file you want to contact Transunion by writing them to tell them to delete such accounts. This is your RIGHT according to the law!

The next part of your credit clean-up plan is a little more difficult. This is where you have to begin rebuilding a credit history, which is where a lot of people get hung up because they normally get denied when they apply for any type of credit.

You want to get past this hurdle by using a secure credit card which does not go by your current credit rating in order to approve you. Instead they ask for a deposit and advance you credit only in the amount of your deposit. This is how they approve your card without a good rating.

Another way is to have a family member that has the same last name and lives with you to add you to one of their revolving credit card accounts that has a good payment history.

The account and the good payment history will eventually show up on your Transunion, Equifax and Experian files which would help give your rating a lift! It could take anywhere from three weeks to three months to improve your Transunion rating depending on your current situation.

Zachary

July 23, 2010

How Long Do Late Payments Stay on My Credit Report?

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 9:18 pm
Tony Banks asked:




Late payments do affect your credit rating but what most consumers don’t know is that it also depends on how late your payment is made to the creditor. To start with, late payments that are made to creditors but are no later than 30 days late are not reported to the credit bureaus. So for instance, you have a credit card payment that is due on the 1st of January and you are not able to make the payment until the 27th of January.

This is considered late with the credit card company but will not show up on your credit report as a late payment. It will not show on your credit report until you are more than 30days late and it will show as a “1-time 30day late payment”.

These types of late payments usually affect your score and can have a lasting effect for about 12 months. The same goes with other types of accounts such as car payments, mortgage payments, personal loans as well as secured loans.

Even if the payment is a couple of days late, the best thing is to try and make sure it does not go beyond the 30-day point. It is also important to note that these late payments can cause your interest rate to rise on your credit cards.

This may be the case even if you are only 1 day late as opposed to 20 days late. This will vary depending on the credit card company you are dealing with. You want to check with the your creditor to find out their exact policy.

Joan

June 26, 2010

Factors That Raise Credit Score Fast

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 10:40 pm
Jack Harmon asked:




So you need to raise your credit score fast? Well credit scores are a very complicated mathematical formula, but if you understand how they are calculated and the factors that affect your score you stand a much better chance to raise your credit score fast.

First off you must understand that there are 3 credit reporting agencies (Experian, Transunion, Equifax) and each of them could have a different credit score for you.

Sometimes a credit score is referred to as a FICO score or beacon score so don’t be alarmed if you see different terms.

In addition, different credit reporting agencies can report more heavily in different regional areas. For instance, Experian could be more heavily reported for customer in the Western region while Equifax could report more heavily in the Southern region.

It is for the above reason that frequently why you will have a different credit score with different credit reporting agencies. If you want to raise your credit score fast here are some things to consider:

Raise Credit Score Fast With These Tips

1. Get a free copy of your credit report and check for errors: Every year 1000s of people find that a creditor or creditors have placed inaccurate information on their credit report. It could be anything from a late payment to a collection. These errors can significantly affect your credit score and getting errors removed can help you raise your credit score fast.

You should highly consider getting a free copy of your credit report and check it for errors. If you find errors, you need to contact the credit reporting bureau and explain to them that you would like to file a complaint as a result of an error on your credit report.

Checking your own credit will not hurt your credit score.

2. Payoff outstanding debt: If you have outstanding debt or credit card debt paying it off can help you improve your credit score. It is not recommended you close your credit cards, because the longer length you have held the credit card can actually help your score.

However, paying off the debt on your credit card can help tremendously because payment history is highly important to your credit score.

3. Avoid shopping for too many loans or credit cards: Every time you shop for a credit card or loan each application you submit can affect your credit score. This does not mean you can not shop for a loan, just do not get out of control with it. Also, if you do shop for a loan be sure to submit all applications within 14 days of each other as this will be more favorable to keeping your credit score high.

In the end, following the above tips can be highly helpful to raise your credit score fast. It is highly recommend you get a copy of your free credit report as any errors on your credit report can be the best option to raise your credit report fast.

Carlos

June 9, 2010

Debt Settlement and Your Credit Score

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 2:43 pm
Marie Megge asked:




Are you considering debt settlement, but concerned it may negatively impact your credit score? If a lower credit score is your main concern regarding debt settlement, read on for answers to some questions you may have.

First, you’ll want to check your credit score to be sure it’s as high as you think it is. You see, if you’re carrying high balances on your credit cards, with many of them being nearly “maxed out,” there’s a good chance that your credit score is only mediocre, at best. Worse yet, if you’ve made even one late payment, your credit score will be reduced, as well.

If you find that your credit score is fairly decent, and you’re worried about your credit file reflecting a lower score as a result of debt settlement, you have a legitimate concern.

Unfortunately, most creditors won’t even consider working with you until your accounts are near “charge-off” status. At that point your credit report will show that your accounts are 180-210 days delinquent, and you can expect your credit score to be significantly reduced.

How long will you need to tolerate a lower-than-normal credit score? Well, that depends on your ability to generate sufficient funds to pay the agreed-upon settlements negotiated and reached with your creditors. Generally, your score will improve when zero balances are reflected on your credit report – usually 30-90 days after a settlement has been paid in full. You can speed this process up by being proactive and sending proof of payment to the major credit reporting agencies, rather than waiting for your creditor to report the changed status. Your score will continue to improve as the debt settlement process is further behind you, and can expect a score of at least the mid-600 range within twelve months of paying your accounts off through debt settlement, provided your mortgage and installment loans do not reflect any late payments.

If you’re struggling each month to make the minimum payments on your accounts, and debt settlement seems to be your best option, a temporary reduction in your credit score probably shouldn’t influence your decision too much. Rather, peace of mind and the ability to pay your bills should be your main concern. If you take a realistic look at your finances, you may very well see that you’re in deeper than you thought. I urge you to gather all of your bills and add up your monthly expenses – including your credit card bills, and then minus your credit card bills. After you’ve made the comparison, you’ll likely understand that the benefits of debt settlement easily outweigh the few months you’ll need to deal with a reduced credit score.

Keith

May 2, 2010

How To Clear Your Credit Report

Filed under: Finance — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 4:03 pm
Hyder Khan asked:




If you’re being turned down for credit left and right by every mortgage broker, credit card company, and landlord, or you’re not even able to refinance your own house, that is an indication that you have some negative items on your credit report that are scaring away lenders. You have two choices: You can either walk away and decide to wait out the next seven years until those negative items drop off your credit report, or you can take control over the situation and learn how to delete negative items from your credit report.

You may have seen those advertisements where those law firms or credit counseling companies promise to fix your credit, raise your FICO score, and get you a fresh start. How do you delete negative items from your credit report? The answer is based on a law passed by Congress in the latter half of the twentieth century known as the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This law was passed to protect consumer’s rights to access their credit report and play an active role in ensuring that it does not contain any inaccuracies or misrepresentations of your true credit profile.

If you have derogatory information contained in any of the credit reports issued by the “big three” credit bureau, you simply need to write a letter to each respective creditor disputing the accuracy of that particular entry in your credit report. By law, then the bureau must contact the creditor to verify that specific item that is in dispute. And here is where the law works in your favor: If the bureau is unable to verify the accuracy of the information within 30 days, they are required to delete that item from your credit report altogether!

Here is an example of how you would do this: Let’s say that you were late for your mortgage payment in May of last year, you simply write a letter to the credit bureau that is reporting that late payment, detailing that entry, and including your name, address, and social security number, in which you state that in accordance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are disputing such and such entry as you believe it may be inaccurate. And in this letter, you must state that, in accordance with the Act, if the agency does not verify this information within 30 days, then they are required to delete the information from your credit report.

Now what if the bureau is able to contact the creditor and verify the information within the 30-day timeframe? Well, then the information stays on your credit report. What if the creditor is a little slow but gets back to the bureau within 45 days? Then yes, even though the bureau deleted the item after 30 days, the information can be added back in the subsequent month. But through patience and persistence, if you follow this method, you will eventually be able to improve your credit score. There is no 100% guarantee, however, which is why shouldn’t pay anyone to fix your credit for you, unless they offer a money back-guarantee if your credit score doesn’t improve within a specific period of time.

A couple of bits of advice: Write one separate letter to each bureau for each disputed item. For example, if you have five derogatory items on your report, that were reported to all three bureaus, then you should write fifteen letters. This way you can track the progress of each dispute, plus it guarantees that the credit agency will pay individual attention to each one. Give them more paperwork to process and they will be that much more backlogged to meet their thirty-day deadline.

And one final bit of advice: The Fair Credit Reporting Act also allows the bureaus to disregard your dispute if it s frivolous in nature. In other words, if you do something to cause them to suspect that you are just filing disputes that you know are more than likely to be accurate, just for the sake of flooding them with requests, then they can disregard your inquiry and not take it seriously. Therefore, be careful not to do things like repeatedly dispute the same item over and over again if it keeps on getting verified. The law was passed to protect the legitimate needs of consumers against credit fraud or data entry errors.

Martha

February 12, 2010

Fix Credit Report – Improve Credit Score

Filed under: Credit — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 6:42 am
Justin Hutto asked:


Correcting credit errors such as charge offs and collections is not usually performed overnight. However, it is a quicker process if you dispute items in the proper order.

If your credit is a mess, chances are you have a variety of bad credit listings such as charge offs and collections. Some items are more damaging than others.

Ordered below is the list of negative items as they correspond to their severity.

Public Records/Bankruptcy are the most severe. Public records include tax liens and court judgments. These items are allowed to remain on your credit report for 10 years – as opposed to the seven years limitation rule that applies to other items.

When you file bankruptcy, you will have multiple negative credit items. You will have the bankruptcy itself as well as any items that were included in the bankruptcy case. All these notations are equally severe.

A single collection item can lower your score by as much as 100 points overnight. You should dispute any collection error as well as negotiate with the agency for a removal.

Foreclosure/Repossession are likewise very severe. These listings are severely damaging to your score and can keep you from getting the next mortgage or car loan.

A charge off is very severe. You may even have multiple listings on your report for a single charge off since it is bought and reported by third-party collection agencies.

A recent late payment surprisingly is equally bad as a charge off. The more recent a black mark is on your credit report, the more it lowers your credit score. Multiple late payments only make matters worse. The credit bureaus interpret multiple late payments as signs that you are having a financial meltdown.

Moderately severe items include a 30,60,90, or 120 day late payment. These items can either be disputed with the credit bureaus or negotiated with the creditor.

The credit scoring formula is biased more towards recent late payments. Older late payments should be given a low priority in your dispute process.

Incorrect Personal Information such as a wrong address or employer is not important. The credit scoring formula does not use this information to generate your score so it is less important compared to the items above.

In order to quickly clean up your credit report, you must challenge the most severe items first. It does no good to focus your time and effort on insignificant items like your employer or address.

To learn more about credit repair or a free credit repair letter to dispute negative listings visit us. To learn about lexington law a professional credit repair firm visit us.



Kim

January 27, 2010

Credit Report Errors

Filed under: Credit — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , — admin @ 4:52 pm
Tina Richardson asked:


Each year, over 13 million inaccuracies are discovered on consumers’ credit reports. This includes everything from faulty late payments, other people’s debts, and a classic is non-payment of an invoice from before they were born. Borrowers are able to challenge these errors; however, most do not know how.

In a 2004 survey conducted by the U.S. Government Accountability Office showed that over 40 percent of consumers had not checked their credit report for errors. Everyone is now entitled under federal law, to a free credit report from each of the three national credit bureaus. TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

You do have the right to challenge any inaccuracy in your credit report, but federal law does not stipulate that key word. Therefore, credit bureaus are able to determine what is erroneous to their advantage.

For example, you would think that out-of-date information is incorrect. Wrong. This is not an arguable error according to Donald Girard, a spokesperson for Experian. Also, you would think that any missing data is also wrong. No. Credit limits do not have to be reported. Unless the creditor tells them, credit bureaus do not have to report it. This can in fact, hurt your credit score.

It is possible to challenge any personal information which may be wrong such as your address, name or social security number.

Credit bureaus are under no obligation to share information, so be sure to dispute any errors with each one. However, creditors are required to post any corrections to whichever firm that they report to.

The best way to challenge an error is by traditional U.S. mail with a return-receipt. This way, there is evidence that the credit bureau received it. Consumers allege that creditors do not make an adequate investigation. Instead, they may simply compare the claimed error against the inaccurate records or simply remove the disputed information.

According to the 2004 GAO study, almost 70 percent of consumers claimed that the information was removed. However, the incorrect information reappeared on 13 percent of these ‘successfully’ resolved disputes.

As mentioned previously, creditors are required to report any corrections to the bureaus that which they report to, however, this sometimes gets overlooked. If this happens, you will need to arrange another dispute, but this time with the creditor.

You can add a 100 word statement to your credit report if you are not satisfied with any corrections. 100 words are rarely enough to present sufficient detail, but this lets creditors know that there is another side to the story. Let it be known though that this statement will account for nothing in a computerized scoring system.

If errors have come about due to identity theft, you have the right to prevent the credit bureaus from reporting accounts opened by the thief, accounts of yours trashed by the thief and any other erroneous data. You can also prevent credit applications submitted by the thief from being reported. In order to accomplish this, you will need to fill out and file an ID theft report to the credit bureaus.

Finally, you may request a credit bureau to submit corrected copies of your credit report to lenders, insurers or other parties if these companies have based decisions on your erroneous report.



Herbert
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