Improve Your Credit Score By Checking Your Credit Report

By Jim Bransby

Your credit score has become an important tool that is used to make decisions about you. When you apply for credit cards or a car loan, this will trigger a credit check and generate multiple credit scores. Based upon these scores, lenders make decisions about whether or not to lend to you, how much to lend, and at what interest rate. Credit scores are also used by potential employers, utility and service providers, along with other companies you do business with.

So, improving your credit is score is essential. The method by which the various credit reporting and scoring companies assemble credit scores differs, but these methods have enough in common that you can be confident that certain steps will improve all of your credit scores.

First of all, you need to know who has this information. There are three major credit reporting bureaus, Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Each of these companies has a file for you and every other person who has consumer credit. These files are assembled over time by compiling the information that credit providers give the credit bureaus. It works like this: Each time you obtain credit it goes into your file, then the lender gives the bureaus a record of the repayment of that debt.

For example, say you get a car loan that requires a payment every month on the 5th for thirty six months. Over the first year, say you make two payments on the 20th, and the rest on or before the 5th. The lender sends a report about this loan activity to each credit reporting bureau. Each credit bureau then uses a proprietary formula to compute a credit score for you, based on the information reported in your file.

The next and most important step is applying to see your credit report. This information is vital, think of it as your financial health record. There are many companies on the internet that allow you to access your credit report and credit score online.

Once you have a credit report and a credit score, take a look at the information reported by your creditors. Make sure that the creditors that are reporting into your credit file are actually your accounts. If there are creditors listed on your report that you did not borrow from, you can improve your credit score by having these entries removed from your account.

Finally, review all payment histories to be sure that they are accurate. If a creditor has reported incorrect late payments, or does not show payments that you make, correcting these can greatly improve your credit score. Your credit score report will contain the addresses of the credit reporting bureaus. Just follow the instructions to write to the bureaus and identify errors in your report

Each credit bureau will individually look into errors. Sometimes you will need to communicate with the bureaus more than once to get things resolved, so it is important to keep a file of letters and responses. As you remove the incorrect late payments or other inaccuracies, your score can improve dramatically in a short time.

As it is so vital, apply to check your credit report as soon as possible, then continue to do so at least annually. The more you are aware of your financial health record, the more easily you can improve your credit score. Since credit scores are so commonly used today, improving yours will help you in many ways.

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To find out exactly how you can get your annual credit report visit my credit report website.