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WHAT IS A CREDIT REPORT? In a nutshell, a credit report is a summary of your financial history. When you apply for credit or financing (i.e. buying a new car, opening a credit card account, etc.) the creditor pulls a copy of your credit report from a credit bureau. While there are many small credit bureaus, virtually all are affiliated with one of the three major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, or Trans Union. These bureaus, even though they collect and maintain data on nearly every American are NOT affiliated with the government in any way. They are private companies whose only motivation is to make a profit by selling your personal information for money. The credit bureaus have agreements with their customers, the same lenders who grant you credit, to have that lender provide information about your relationship with them. They then take this information about you from all of the lenders and put it in a database that they then sell to other lenders. Therefore, if you make a late payment, it is quickly reported to at least one of these three major credit bureaus and shows up on your credit report. The worst part is that your credit report not only shows your current financial condition, it contains your financial records of everything you have done in the past several years. Therefore, even if you made a late payment 5 years ago, but have been paying your bills on time ever since, it doesn’t matter, that late payment will still show up on your credit report. The credit bureaus then sell this information to credit grantors, who look at the data to determine if you are a good financial risk (will you repay the loan, do you have too much debt, and will you pay on time). The fewer negative items that appear on your credit report, the more inclined a lender will be to grant you credit at the best rate available. Essentially, the “permanent record” that we all heard about growing up is real. This “permanent record” is your credit report. If this report doesn’t show good results you can forget about getting the credit and loans that you need and deserve. WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION SHOWS UP ON MY CREDIT REPORT? Merchant Trade Lines These are the traditional items that you would think would be on your credit report. They include your regular credit lines like credit cards, auto loans, and mortgages. Information on late payments, if the line was part of a bankruptcy, charged off, or put into repossession will be considered negative by all lenders. Collection Accounts If your account is referred to collections or a collection agency this will appear on your credit report. These accounts can appear as paid or unpaid accounts. Regardless, any type of collection account is considered VERY negative by all lenders. Court Records Court records can include things such as bankruptcies, liens, judgments, divorce, satisfied judgments and satisfied liens. These court records are considered negative by all credit grantors. Inquiries Each time a potential lender or credit grantor looks at your credit report, it is recorded on the report as an inquiry. If you have a significant number of inquiries over the last two years this may have a negative impact on your credit as the lender will become nervous that you are attempting to get too much credit. WILL MY NEGATIVE ITEMS STAY LISTED FOREVER? No. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that most negative items be deleted from your credit report by the end of seven years, except for bankruptcy, which can remain on your report for up to ten years. Inquiries can remain on your credit report for up to two years. CAN I VIEW MY CREDIT REPORT? Generally, a lender or credit grantor is not permitted to show you your credit report. You can however purchase your credit report from the bureau for a fee. In most cases it will be difficult for you to understand what your credit report says, because they use a special set of codes to report the data. WHAT IF I ONLY HAVE A SMALL AMOUNT OF BAD CREDIT? It only takes a small amount of bad credit to result in a denial. In fact just one late payment may be enough. Even worse, is the reality that even a large amount of positive credit can not offset negative credit. The smallest amount of negative credit can significantly hurt your credit rating. WHO SEES MY CREDIT REPORT? For good or bad, your credit report is being used more and more frequently to determine your character. Obviously, those granting you credit (i.e. for a loan, or credit card) will look at your credit report to see your financial history. Increasingly, other non-financial groups are looking at your credit report to determine if you are worthy. Employers are now using credit reports to determine if you should be hired, insurance companies are reviewing your credit report to determine whether to extend you coverage. WHAT IS A CHARGE OFF? A charge off is the term used when you become very late on an account and the creditor decides you are probably not going to pay the debt. When the creditor reaches this conclusion they write the debt off as a loss for tax purposes. Beware however, the creditor will continue to recover the debt by selling the debt to a new creditor or by sending it to collections.  ^ back to top |
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