Looking at your Credit

Who needs good credit?  Those who want to buy a house of course, but also those who want lower insurance rates.....or a good job!  Yes, employers may require that you let them review your credit.

You are entitled to a free annual credit report as mandated by law.  The free report does not include credit scores.  If you order your scores it is at a cost of approximately $7.95 per repository.

My personal choice is to set an automatic reminder in my online calendar.  Please bookmark this web address to retrieve your FREE credit reports-  FREE Annual Credit Report  You will need it for EACH of the FREE reports. 

January 15th is the reminder for me to get my TransUnion report.  First, I go to the link above and get my credit report ONLY for TransUnion.  After reviewing my report, if I need to dispute something that's in error I then use this link TransUnion Dispute

May 15th is set for my Experian report.  Go to Experian Dispute to dispute any errors.

September 15th I'll get a notification to retrieve my Equifax report for review.  To dispute any errors on that go to Equifax Dispute

In each case it's a FREE credit report and I can monitor it throughout the year instead of just once.  This way it's quicker to have something fixed.  Generally all 3 repositories report similiarly so fixing it on one of them MIGHT fix it on all of them.

When you DISPUTE an error you're saying "this isn't mine OR it's over 7-1/2 years old so should be removed", or something along those lines.

Speaking of the 7-1/2 year "clock"..... The date of delinquency is the ORIGINAL FIRST MISSED PAYMENT DATE....NOT the date the collection agency received it, nor is it the last date they spoke with you.  The 7-1/2 year "clock" begins on the original date of delinquency, so it's very important to keep proof of this!

Be sure to dispute any account that was included in a bankruptcy.  The creditor can keep it on your credit report but if it was discharged in your Schedule of Debtors then they have to reset the "Balance Owing" to zero.  The BK discharged that debt and it is no longer owing ANY balance.  Of course, all accounts included in the BK should also be listed as "Included in Bankruptcy" as well.  This is very important.

Okay, so you have reviewed the credit reports and disputed errors.  What about items that went into collection?  Look for the "Disputing Collections" buttons here on my website and click on it, then follow those steps.  This is a very powerful tool!