Why Do You Need All Three Your Credit Reports?

Why do you need all three? The problem is that when you apply for a loan, you do not know which one of the credit bureaus will be used by the potential lender to review your credit rating. It might be Experian, it might be Equifax or it might be Transunion. And your credit score and details on your report might be different for all three these bureaus. It is therefore very important to get your report from all three bureaus.

You Are Entitled To Get Access To All Three Credit Reports… For Free!

Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) you are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report form each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion once a year. You can only request this report from the officially mandated site http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This site will arrange that you receive copies of your credit report from each of the three companies.

But here is the catch – this site will only send you your credit report, not your credit score.

If you want to have both your credit score as well as your credit reports, you will have to pay for these. You can get a copy of your credit score from this site at a reasonable price.

Understanding your credit report

Your credit report consists of the following sections:

  1. Personal information – this is the easy part, since it is straight forward and contains your name, surname, social security number and so forth
  2. Credit History – this is the important part! This gives your credit history for all your credit – when you opened the account, what type of account it is, how much you owe and so forth.
  3. Public Records – this part contains information about bankruptcies, defaults on payments and so forth. You would like this part to be empty since it sends out a really bad message about your creditworthiness.
  4. Enquiries – this lists everyone who has ever enquired about your credit score.

OK, now that you know your credit score (and it is really horrible!), what do you do now?

Don’t make the mistake to think that a few points on your credit score won’t make a huge difference. A few points on a credit score can mean the difference between a lender offering you a prime rate reserved for the best credit risks and the worse interest rate offered to less than prime customers. This may amount to only a few percentages in different loan rates, but this can make a huge impact in the amount that you will be paying eventually, especially on a large purchase. For example, a few percentage points on a long-term fixed-rate loan can mean the difference between tens of thousands of dollars saved - or tens of thousands of dollars overspent.

It is in your best interest to boost your credit score by every percentage point you can and to fight for the very lowest interest rate loans you can. After all, if you have larger payments each month due to a higher interest rate than you deserve, it will be harder for you to repay your bills. Also, you will qualify for fewer loans if you have higher-than-needed interest rates, as you will be able to afford fewer of the larger monthly payments.

Click here to find out how to make a dent in those credit scores and push them higher…

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