How to Check Your Credit Report

Most people think that their credit report is some great secret, hidden from them though it can have such a major effect in their lives. This is far from the truth, however, and can be a dangerous way of thinking. People who don't check their report have no way of knowing whether or not the information contained within is accurate, and if they don't know if that information is accurate then they may be penalized for a mistake that's been in their report for years without them ever knowing about it.

Here is some basic information about your credit report, including how to check it and what to do should you find an error in your report.

The report

Obviously, your credit report is important, but do you know exactly what it is, or what purpose it serves? It is compiled by one of the credit bureaus, and is a collection of the good and bad reports that the credit bureau has received from your creditors over the years. The good and bad reports are used to calculate a numerical credit score that represents how good or bad your credit rating is, and it can take up to 7 years for reports in your credit history to expire. This means that if you're wanting to simply wait until some of the negative reports you've received in the past for late payments to expire, you might be waiting for several years.

Obtaining your report

If you want to check your own credit report, you need to get a copy of it. In most cases you can order a copy directly from one of the credit bureaus, though an increasing trend is for governments to allow their citizens to obtain a free copy of their credit report once per year. It is also possible to acquire a free copy from certain websites and organizations, though they usually require that you sign up for a "free trail" of a credit monitoring service that is often expensive and difficult to cancel before they begin charging you for it.

Checking for errors

Once you've ob tained a copy you should read through it carefully and be on the look out for anything that doesn't seem familiar or that appears to be incorrect. It's important that you take your time when reading through the report, as there's an above average chance that you'll have at least a little trouble understanding the layout and abbreviations that are used at first. Read through your report at least twice, noting any potential errors so that you can attempt to have them corrected and removed altogether.

Reporting errors

In order to try to fix errors on your credit report, send a letter to the credit bureau with any errors that you may have found and request that they investigate the claims to make sure that they are correct. If the credit bureau finds the debts to be valid, then they'll remain on your credit report, if they're found to be inaccurate or if the creditor doesn't respond to the bureau's inquiry, however, then the negative report will be removed from your report and your credit score will be adjusted to reflect this ch ange.

Jerry Warner writes general finance and loan articles for the Loans UK Online website at www.loansukonline.co.uk [http://www.loansukonline.co.uk/]

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