Nathalie Fiset asked:




In most countries, a credit report, also known as credit history or credit reputation, is a record or documentation of a company’s or a person’s previous borrowing and payments. Such record also contains information regarding bankruptcy and late payments.

When applying for credit from a credit card company, a store or a bank, the customer will be required to fill out an application form and the information that he/she will put in that form will then be forwarded to a credit bureau or a consumer reporting agency, together with his/her credit history, regular updates on the standing of his/her credit accounts, buying history, residence history and whether he/she has been bankrupt or not in the last 10 years. If for instance you have been imprisoned, sued or arrested for financial reasons, then it will be reflected on your credit history.

The information will be used by banks, credit card companies and other lenders to know the credit worthiness of an entity or an individual. This will help the lender and businesses in evaluating your applications for insurance, credit, employment and other purposes authorized by the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Because of this, you need to review your credit report regularly for factual errors and omissions.

Factors in Determining your Credit Rating

Though the ways to determine credit ratings in every country are different, the factors or determinants are the same and may consist of:

o Payment history – Late payments on your usual monthly bills should be avoided because it will definitely lower your credit rating. The credit card debts and bank loans are usually missed because they aren’t as critical as your gas or electricity bills.

o Debt Control – The lenders want to make sure that the borrowers are not taking debt than they can actually handle. As estimated by experts, the borrower’s non-mortgage credit payments every month should not be more than fifteen percent of his/her net income. And one of the means to reduce your monthly expenditures is to get rid of chronic expenses, like car loans. Through this, your debt-reduction plan can have more funds.

o Borrower’s stability and responsibility – the lenders usually see things like the borrower’s longevity in his/her job. They consider this as a sign of your stability.

o Closing Credit Accounts – bear in mind that credit scoring companies usually pay much attention to the duration of your credit history so closing your old credit accounts will lower your credit rating since it deletes your longest payment history. However, closing newer accounts can make your score get better by lessening your available amount of credit.

o Re-aging – this process can significantly enhance your credit report score because through this, your credit history is re-written and you will have a fresh start on that certain account.

o Credit Inquiries – inquiry or notation on your credit report file are of two kinds:

1. Soft Credit Inquiries

a. The credit agency can sell the individual’s or entity’s contact details to a certain advertiser who’s buying a list or persons with the same characteristics, such as homeowner with outstanding credit rating.

b. A creditor can review an individual’s credit every so often.

c. With the permission of the client, the credit counseling agency can also get the client’s credit reputation.

2. Hard Credit Inquiries – this can be done by lenders, with the borrower’s permission, for the sole intention of extending his/her credit. Such inquiries from lenders can affect the customer’s credit rating so it will be better to keep your credit inquiries to a minimum number. There are lenders who will think that many credit inquiries means that he/she is planning to make loans.

These are just among the factors that directly affect your credit report score, particularly if you are applying for a credit card or making a loan. But you should not forget that there’s no quick fix in improving your credit score and maintaining a good rating is quite hard. It takes a little scrimping, discipline and common sense but they will all be worth, when you finally get your card or your loan without much hassle. A credit report is not biased since it will just jot down information but it will not judge whether your action id good or bad.

Leo

Steve Faber asked:




Catalogs with instant credit can help boost your credit. To know how they can give your FICO credit score a boost, you need to know how its calculated. Your credit score is a measure of the risk you present to creditors, based upon your credit history.

A major component of your score is the ratio of your total outstanding revolving credit to your available revolving credit. It’s known in the financial industry as the credit utilization score, and the lower your score the better. You have two ways to lower the credit utilization score. As with any fraction or percentage, you can make the top number (your outstanding revolving credit) smaller, or the lower number (your available revolving credit) larger.

If rapidly paying down your outstanding debt just isn’t an option for you, as it isn’t for so many people, you are left with only one option to lower your credit utilization score, and thus your FICO credit score. That is to raise your total available revolving credit. The nice thing is that as soon as the additional credit accounts are reported to you the credit reporting agencies, your credit score will get a boost. This could happen in less than a month.

In many cases, especially in the current skittish credit environment, you’ll not be able to get new credit cards, or the limit will be very low. That exhausts one of your best options for adding to your total revolving credit limit. Thankfully, there are other options for you to pursue. Once of these is to find catalogs that offer instant credit.

In the vast majority of cases, especially these days, the credit will have to be used to purchase only catalog merchandise. That’s perfectly okay, as you’ll not be using it, unless you have to make a purchase as a condition for opening the account. Before you open the catalog account, it’s essential you confirm that the company reports your account to the credit bureaus. If they don’t you’ll get no credit score increase from opening the new account.

That is how catalogs with instant credit can help give your credit score a quick boost. You’ll need tricks like this up your sleeve, because excellent will be a virtual requirement in the years ahead as businesses and lenders tighten their lending requirements.

Lillie

Morgan Hamilton asked:




There are many companies offering instant approval credit cards to consumers, along with some very nice bonuses. There are two major types of instant approval cards, the ones offered online and the ones offered to you by the cashiers in retail stores. For the purpose of this article, only the store accounts will be discussed. Frequently you can receive a discount on the purchases made the day you open the credit account, get no interest on purchases for up to a year, or receive an incentive program only offered to customers opening accounts in the store. As you can see, there are several reasons to consider apply for one of these cards.

A Percentage Off Your Purchases

Most of the time, opening an instant approval account will allow you a discount off whatever you are buying that day. When the account is opened while you are already in line, they usually restrict the discount to just the items for that transaction. On the other hand, if you apply right when you walk into the store, you may be allowed the rest of the day (while the store is open) to apply the discount to your purchases. It varies from store to store, so be sure to ask.

Interest Free On Purchases

Similar to other accounts, instant approval credit cards offer an interest free term, usually on purchases over a certain amount. The length of the interest free period can be anywhere from three months to a full year. As long as you pay off the entire balance before that period of time is up, you will not have to pay interest. Also important to note that the amount of the purchases is usually not very high while the credit limits on instant approval credit cards are often higher than those offered by banks.

Incentive Programs

Occasionally, the instant credit accounts will offer an incentive program (often known as a rewards program) for accounts opened within the store on a certain day or during a certain time of the year such as back-to-school. The incentives range from a percentage of cash back to a donation for the school of your choice.

Obviously there are several good reasons to apply for instant approval credit cards. It is also a good idea to pick a day when you have a large purchase to make before applying, to take the most advantage of the benefits.

Gail

Tim Gorman asked:




Without question, the most important thing to having a clean credit report is the actual information that is contained in your report. This file contains all of your financial history in a detailed manner. Normally, this report carries a score with it ranking somewhere between 300 and 850 points. Nearly every lender or lending institution uses this score to determine if someone presents a credit risk and is worthy to of receiving credit based on their previous ability to pay off prior loans and debts. For this very reason it is important to ensure that you maintain a clean credit report because your financial survival depends on it.

Normally the first entry on your credit report focuses on your personal information. It should include the following data – your name, phone numbers, addresses (previous and current), your social security number, employers (past and present) and your date of birth.

Next, the information that pertains to your credit accounts follows. This data is includes all of your loans to include the maximum loan and any joint account holder information should it pertain to you. One special section is also included which covers any specific inquiries from companies or agencies that have recently requested a copy of your credit report.

You may also see some public record information depending on which state you are located or residing in. This information could include but is not limited to bankruptcies, court proceedings, overdue payments and any other public record information that may be derogatory in nature. Usually, these type of entries will stay on your credit report anywhere from seven to ten years and as you would expect, they do negatively affect your ability to obtain a loan or credit.

How To Clean Your Credit Report

In order to eradicate any negative information from your credit report you should first order a free copy of your record from each of the three credit bureaus. Once you have received your reports you will need to conduct a thorough and detailed analysis in order to determine what information is inaccurate, wrong or erroneous. Once you have identified these errors you can dispute the information by sending a letter to each bureau requesting that the data be removed or corrected. Unfortunately, this process may take some time and will most likely require several follow-up letters or inquirers.

Remember, the first step requires that you order your credit report. This can be easily accomplished because you are able to order one free credit report every year based on the FCRA or Fair Credit Reporting Act from each of the credit reporting agencies. These agencies are Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Because the bureaus can make mistakes with names, addresses or employers it is vital that you make sure all of the information on your report is you own and that it doesn’t belong to someone else with the same name as yourself.

Don’t stop with this single credit checkup. Instead, get in the habit of ordering your report every year in order to find and dispute any inaccurate or erroneous information. If you perform this simple task and make every attempt to ensure you pay all of your bills on time avoiding late payments. By following these procedures you should be able to add 50 points to your credit report every year.

Constance

Charle Lawrence asked:


A credit report is an important tool that can help your finances and the credit status. A credit report is formulated under the credit bureaus that keep a track of all your financial activities. Free instant credit reports are now available online and can be accessed at a single mouse click. It is a tool that saves you from suffering any sort of identity thefts and also reports you about all your financial standings.

A credit report is always checked when you go for a credit card, home loan, auto loan and even a job. So here it is very important for you to get a free instant credit report and check for any inaccuracy that may become a trouble for you in the future.

The credit reports are made by the credit bureaus under the federal law. This report keeps a check on your credit status and other personal information. If you want a credit from the market then you have to produce your credit report. It is very important to keep checking your reports so as to avoid any inaccuracy in your personal information and credit accounts.

You can also get a free instant credit report online through various websites. This report is the basis for your next credit and it is sometime very urgent that you need to produce it instantly in such a case instant credit report is the free service that you can use. A credit report contains your personal information, major financial transactions, credit status, outstanding payments and also credit score.

On the basis on credit reports prepared by the credit bureaus a person gets the credit, loan or even a job. It is an official document which can be produced for the identification. Hence it is very important to regularly check your report. Free instant credit report is the instant solution which can be used in certain urgent situations where you may have to take credit from the lender.



Cindy