Amy Gordon asked:


Credit reports keep records of your financial life and need to be checked regularly. They have to be up-to-date and the information contained by them correct. Now it would be a hassle if you had to keep visiting credit reporting agencies for updating them. But with free online credit reports, you can avoid such inconveniences. Such reports help you do the checking anytime you want as you can get free and easy access by just logging on the internet.

Free online credit reports are credit reports that contain information of your financial records as well as your current financial status. These may include your personal details, your credit details, any public records regarding financial matters and also the inquiry made by any third party on your record. You get the report simply by submitting an online application form for free. Reviews are made quickly and you will have your free online credit reports in no time.

Credit report needs to be updated on the regular and any faulty data needs to be removed immediately. By getting it online for free, you are giving yourself the opportunity to check it whenever you can without having to pay a personal visit to the credit reporting agency. If any change has been made, you will get to know it instantly. Conversely, if any recent record has not been entered, you can also remedy the situation at the earliest. You also get the chance to contact your agency and inquire about the errors so that your credit status remains clean.

The biggest advantage that you get through free online credit reports is that the services you get are prompt and free of cost. You can get the report as well as get it updated at home or wherever you happen to be as long as you can get access to the internet. They are also easy to find. You just have to browse the internet and check out the various sites which offer them.



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Allison May asked:


The answer to the above question is yes. You definitely should obtain a copy of your credit report. If you’re asking why, let’s talk about some important points about your credit report.

What is in your credit report?

Your credit report contains significant information about your accounts and finances. In your credit report, you can find your employment history, your salary history, your past and present credit with all your creditors and other legal information.

Also included in your credit report is your complete name, Social Security Number, date of birth, driver’s license number, your past and current home address, telephone number and other personal details. All transactions that you have with lending companies, credit card companies, insurance companies and other financial institutions are all reflected on your credit report.

How much you owe a certain creditor is listed in detail. Also, whether you’re paying your bills on time or not can be traced by looking at your credit report. All these information are included on your credit report.

Who Checks On Your Credit Report?

You may now have an idea why it is important for you to obtain a copy of your own personal credit report. Landlord, potential employers, insurance companies, government agencies, lending companies, credit card companies – all these organizations check on your credit report to know your background and reputation.

A single false information or an incorrect transaction on your credit report can damage your credit worthiness. You can get denied by potential employers just because your credit report seems bad. Creditors can refuse your applications on account that you have bad account on your credit report. Thus, it is your responsibility to check and ensure that there isn’t any false information or derogatory records that can affect your reputation.

Check Your Credit Report

You have the right to know if all the information contained on your credit report is true and accurate. As a consumer, you have the right to dispute information which you think are false, erroneous or fraudulent.

The Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act protects consumers from such inaccuracy or possible fraudulent accounts contained in their credit report. In fact, if a credit reporting agency or a credit bureau refuses to give you the appropriate service you need, you may also report it to The Federal Trade Commission.

Every year, all consumers are allowed to obtain a copy of their report from the three major credit bureaus for free. Thus, after making a careful examination on your credit report, you can inform the credit bureaus if you find any disputable records on your credit report. Below are the contact numbers of the three major credit bureaus.

Equifax Options P.O. Box 740123 Atlanta, GA 30374-0123 www.equifax.com

Experian Consumer Opt Out P.O. Box 919 Allen, TX 75013 www.experian.com

Trans Union Name Removal Option P.O. Box 97328 Jackson, MS 39288-7328 www.transunion.com

For a more in-depth discussion on credit report and your rights as a consumer, you may visit the FTC’s website at www.ftc.gov.



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leana asked:


Someone please help me. Can they report you three times on the same credit report agency with the same account. I am showing two entries from the same collector for an account i owe and another one from a different collection agency for this same exact account. Can they do that? None of them show it has been charged off they are all trying to collect on this.

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jysn_kay asked:


??????? I left a college i was attending in the spring quarter around janurary before even ENROLLING in classes, so i go on my credit report today and they ARe on there as trying to collect from me for a outrageous amount like 7K and i want to dispute this charge because i owe them NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!! How do i dispute a charge on my credit report?

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Athena asked:


I live in Texas and have debts showing on my credit report that are over 5 years old, some as old as 8 years.

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mindthetwine asked:


I received a letter from a debt collection agency this past December. Because I did not recognize the debt, I disputed the item and asked for detail on what the debt was for (in December). I never received a response and followed-up in February, to which I also received no response. About three weeks ago, I sent a certified letter requesting the same information and have yet to hear from the agency. Then, I noticed on my credit report last week that they have reported this debt. Can they do this? Do I have any remedies under the law?

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carrox asked:


I recently paid off 2 major debits & the collection companies sent me letters saying that I have paid my debuts they told me I can send them to the 3 Credit bureaus so they can take it off my report, how do I go about doing that? Please help I want to boost up my credit score.

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Chane Steiner asked:


Having a credit score that is less than perfect is quite common these days. A single late or missed payment can drop your credit score by up to 100 points! There are techniques to bad credit report repair that you can learn to fix your bad credit. While it’s easy to see it slip, it is just as simple to raise it up - if you follow the advice given here.

Tip 1: You need to pay down your credit card balances.

The algorithm that dictates your credit score weighs the difference between your available credit and your credit in use very heavily. If you have credit cards that are maxed or near maxed, then you need to do more than pay the interest on them each month. Make some sacrifices and start reducing the principal amount on them. The most that you should have on any one card at any time is bout 30% of the maximum limit allowed. When you have credit that is available to you that you are not using, it makes you look like you practice restraint and shows responsibility. Credit score algorithms like that.

Tip 2: Break out some of those older credit cards and use them.

The longer that a credit account is in good shape for, the better it weighs on your credit score. If you have older credit cards that are still valid, but you haven’t used them in a while, use them. Charge up to 30% of the maximum limit and then pay it off promptly and in full. This way, these actions get reported to your credit bureaus and make you look like a well-established credit champion!

Tip 3: Dispute negative items on your credit report.

You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies once every year. They are: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. So, once every four months, request a copy from one of them. This way, you are always in the know about your credit situation.

Go through them each time you get one and dispute every the negative items on them. It is your legal right to dispute any negative claim against you. By disputing an item, you are exercising your right to have the claim verified. This is the responsibility of the credit reporting agency since they are the organization selling your information for profit. It is their responsibility to verify the information that they are selling.

They must verify each claim disputed in a reasonable time frame of 30 to 45 days or they have to strike it from your report. Now, about 40% of these disputed claims do not get verified in time. This is the single most powerful method of bad credit report repair. Use it to your advantage and use it often. Make sure to submit your dispute forms via certified mail at the busiest business times of the year.

These are just a few of the ways that you can engage in bad credit report repair. All it takes is attention, diligence and then some patience. Bad credit report repair is your legal right and something that you should do regularly!



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Stephen Chua asked:


Your credit report contains vital information that affects your credit score. Every time you take up a loan or apply for credit, your lenders will access your credits report to see if you qualify for the it. Thus it is imperative that you constantly monitor your credit report to make sure it is in good health.

Given the monstrous amount of data each credit bureaus process on a daily basis, there are bound to be errors in one form or another. Here are a few common errors found in credit reports:

1. Incorrect spellings

This can happen to your name, addresses, telephone number, email address, social security number and so forth. Misspelling can means your report contains negative records that belong to someone else! Just fixing these minor details can give you a significant boost in your credit score.

2. Information that should not be there

Most negative records should disappear from credit report in seven years or less. The exception being bankruptcy which can stay in the report for up to ten years. Make sure to go over the negative records in your credit report and look out for those records that should not be there.

3. Double listing of loan information

This may come as a shock for many people when they noticed that their mortgage loans (or other loans) have been listed more than once in their credit reports. This will inflate the debt amount artificially and increase the debt-to-credit ratio (which is not a good thing).

Lenders may not notice the double listing errors and instead focus more on the debt-to-credit ratio and debt amounts to make their decisions.

4. Missing positive information

If you review your reports from the three major credit bureaus, you probably notice that they are not entirely identical. If you look closer, you will probably find some positive records that exist in one report but not the others.

Don’t ignore them. List them down for each report and call up each credit bureau to report the discrepancy. Positive records can give your credit score a big boost so make sure all of them are included in the three reports.

The three major credit bureaus handle a large volume of data each day and thus it is inevitable that errors will occur. However, it is your responsibility to ensure that your own credit reports contain the correct data. Review your credit reports once every six month and take action quickly when you find any errors.



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Jon Arnold asked:


Is there really bogus information in my credit report? Chances are that you are amongst the more than 85% of consumers and businesses where their credit report contains errors. What? Doesn’t anybody watch over this or police it? The simple answer is no. The attitude of the credit bureaus is that “we don’t make the news, we just report it” and they take zero responsibility for the ACCURACY of that information, they just report it as if it were fact.

How does this happen? Let’s backup a few steps first so we can understand why this is the case and then we can talk about your responsibilities. First of all, there are three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion), and chances are very high that all three of them have a DIFFERENT credit report on you or your business. The result is that when you apply for a line of credit or a loan, the credit score reported back will be different from each credit bureau, and could be different enough to where you would be approved if they got your credit report from credit bureau “A” instead of credit bureau “B” or “C”.

Keep in mind that reporting credit is a business, and like any business, the rates charged to companies who report on their consumer and business loans is different. So say that two years ago your Visa company was reporting to Equifax, but this year they switched and are now report to Experian because Experian gives them better rates. It happens every day, this is just basic business. But the downside is that the records that Equifax was keeping on you are no longer being updated.

Now take that fact into consideration coupled with the fact that say every consumer has just 10 accounts that are either currently active or had been active at one time in the past 10 years. (And 10 is a very conservative number!) Now multiply the number of consumers (hundreds of millions) by 10 accounts each, and you end up with literally BILLIONS of records that the credit bureaus need to keep track of. It can be a database administrator’s worst nightmare.

So what you end up with is accounts that you paid off years ago still showing as having a balance due, accounts showing past due when you have not ever been late with a payment, and particularly if you have a common name, you end up with accounts showing up that you don’t even know about! All of these errors together comprise your ultimate credit score, which is almost certainly lower than it should be.

So what can you do about this? You can do plenty and you should start yesterday. Get a copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus and then go over each and every piece of information there with a fine tooth comb. When (almost certainly not “if”) you find something inaccurate, it is your responsibility to dispute that item with the credit bureau. That is the ONLY way it will get corrected. The burden of proof is on the credit bureau to prove that their reported information is correct, and they do this by contacting the creditor and asking for verification, based on your dispute. If the creditor does not respond, the information must be removed from your credit report. If the creditor responds that it is accurate, then you have a beef with that creditor and need to contact them to get their report corrected.

The key point is that your credit report affects virtually every aspect of your life, and you need to ensure that the information there is accurate and reflects you in as good a light as possible. It is YOUR responsibility to get this done, nobody is watching over your shoulder to ensure your information is accurate.



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