If you’ve ever applied for a loan or credit card, chances are your lender acquired and examined a copy of your credit report before deciding whether or not to grant you credit.

Your “Credit Report” is a record of your credit history and it’s prepared by agencies called “Credit Bureaus”, or “Consumer Reporting Agencies.” These are private organizations and have no affiliation with the United States (or any) government. There are 3 major credit bureaus in the United States (2 in Canada) and their names are Experian, EquiFax, and Trans Union.

Did you know that credit reporting is a multi-billion dollar a year industry? It’s true! The credit bureaus are for-profit organizations that generate billions of dollars in revenue each year from selling copies of credit reports to creditors and mailing lists.

Your credit report affects more than your financial life. It could affect your education, career, and even your relationships. Your credit report is used not only by lenders and creditors, but also by auto, life, and home insurers, future employers, and even some educational institutions. It affects the interest rates you’ll pay on everything!

So as you can see, your credit report can have a critical impact on many facets of your life. For example, because of a bad credit report you could be forced to pay tens of thousands of dollars MORE in loan interest over the life of your home mortgage. This is no exaggeration!

Since the credit bureaus prepare and distribute your credit report to lenders, they clearly wield a great deal of power over both your financial and personal life. But it would be a grave mistake to be intimidated by them, or to think that you have no choice but to live with the negative effects of a bad credit report.

In fact, there’s plenty you can do!

Always remember; Knowledge is power! There’re a few facts the credit bureaus would rather you don’t know. Let’s take a look at them, and you’ll see why.

1. Credit reports are filled with errors!

It will probably astonish you to learn the percentage of credit reports that contain errors. While there seems to be some disagreement, estimates range from 1 out of every 3 (on the low end) to as high as 90%! Here’s a “run down” on error estimates.

Percentage of Credit Reports Than Contain Mistakes

Attorney General of NY 1/3
Consumers Union 48%
US Congress 1/2
Charles Givens Organization 90%

So no matter who you believe, it’s clear that way too many credit reports have errors. So even if you think you have good credit, it might be well worth your while to get a copy of your credit report and take a careful look at it.

2. The law is on your side!

In 1972 Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to curb abuses by the credit bureaus. The FCRA is the governing federal law on the issue of credit reporting.

Under the FCRA, you have the right to dispute negative information in your credit report. The credit bureaus then have 30 days to verify the disputed information with the creditor. If they cannot (or do not) verify the disputed information within 30 days, it must be deleted from your credit report.

3. Even accurate data in your credit report must be deleted if it’s not verified.

If you’ve done any research into credit repair you’ve no doubt run across statements to the effect of “Negative data in your credit report that is accurate cannot be removed.” As stated above, the FCRA stipulates that any disputed information must be verified within 30 days, or it must be deleted. The “burden of proof” (in a manner of speaking), is on the credit bureaus.

4. Credit repair DOES WORK in most cases!

You’ll hear all kinds of opinions as to whether “credit repair” (i.e. efforts to improve your credit report) can be successful. The truth is, credit repair doesn’t always work perfectly. But in almost every case the process of credit repair will result in at least SOME improvement in your credit score, and most often that improvement is substantial. So credit repair does work!

Now you may be wondering why repairing your credit score would be of any concern to the credit bureaus. After all, don’t they make money by compiling and distributing credit reports regardless of whether those reports are negative or positive?

Well, yes they do, BUT…they also make money (a GREAT DEAL of money) selling names of people with poor credit, to creditors who have a specific interest in those people.

So why would some creditors want to bother with people who have poor credit? Because they know they can charge higher interest rates to those people, because the “bad credit risks” have no choice but to pay those exorbitant rates or forgo credit altogether!

Besides, investigating disputed information costs the credit bureaus time, manpower, and money. They have nothing to gain, and plenty to lose, when people take the initiative and dispute negative information on their credit report.

5. It’s perfectly legal to hire third party help to repair your credit.

There are plenty of “Credit Repair Agencies” who will help you repair your credit. But if a credit bureau even suspects you’re using such an agency, it’s likely they’ll try to discourage you from doing so. In some cases they’ll even go so far as to send you a letter stating that use of such agencies is illegal.

Such statements are (to put it as politely as possible) garbage! In fact there are laws that regulate such agencies. Now laws don’t exist to regulate illegal activity, except to ban it! When was the last time you saw laws that regulate what cocaine dealers must do to operate within the law?

Once again, repairing a bad credit report just isn’t in the best interest of the major credit bureaus. But unless you happen to be the CEO of one of those bureaus, the most important question as far as you’re concerned is “What’s in MY best interest?”

First of all, get a copy of your credit report and examine it. You can get a free copy of your report at http://www.annualcreditreport.com.

Secondly, take steps to improve your credit report. You can go about it in one of two ways.

1. Hire third party help.

If repairing your own credit report sounds too intimidating, there are plenty of credit repair agencies that will do it for you. But if you take this approach, there are three things you need to know.

First, they’re not cheap. Expect to pay from $2,500 to $5,000 for an attorney or $795 to $2,000 or more for a credit repair agency. Secondly, they don’t always do it right! Some will manage to get the negative data on your credit report removed while actually doing damage to your “credit score” (a calculated number used by creditors to evaluate you credit worthiness.) Finally, many are outright scams!

That’s not to say you shouldn’t hire third party help. If you do your “home work,” ask for references, and carefully select a reputable credit repair agency, you’ll be much better off than if you had done nothing. Still, if you’re willing to do a little work, there’s a much better alternative.

2. Repair you own credit report.

Anyone can fix their own credit report. If you can write a few letters, address, stamp, and mail them you can repair your own credit. There’re plenty of good books available that can walk you thought the whole procedure, and once you’re done a little study, you’ll be surprised at how simple the process is.

Bad credit will cost you many thousands of dollars and limitless anxiety. Even if you have fair credit, fixing you credit could still save you thousands in interest payments over the years.

Credit repair software is an excellent way to repair your credit. Get started today!

I would not be talking about how to increase or enhance your Credit Score since I believe, no matter what your score is it’s never enough. We feel that we could have got a better bargained APR for the new car we have purchased.

So let’s talk about how to get rid of your lower credit score. Some prefer calling it as the FICO score. This reminds me Transunion uses Emperica Score FICO. Equifax uses Beacon score FICO and Experian used Fair Issac FICO. The algorithms used by each are different but they have similar weightage for factors. This is precisely the reason why all the three Credit Rating agencies have different scores. They might not vary much.

One advice for increasing your credit score which many experts give is to increase credit limit on your credit cards. This is a time tested solution for a ‘credit score improve’ key.

What is the acceptable ratio of credit limit and utilisation? It is considered to be safe to utilise 30 % of your existing credit limit. Above 50 % is still OK but if you are over drafting on your credit card, then your credit score will fall drastically, even before you knew it.

What should one do when credit card companies are reducing credit limits and unused credit lines?

There are companies where you can formally make request for credit limit increase. Wells Fargo and American Express are two such Credit Companies which do have the credit limit increase option. There are policies attached to each of them but they are by far the best ones to try for credit limit increase, thereby leading to credit score increase.

Another advice which I use to increase my credit score is balance transfer.

I try to reduce the overall limit on my credit cards by consolidating them and transferring balance from a higher utilised card to a lower utilised card thereby also benefitting on the interest rate that is applicable.

Credit card is a revolving debt and is looked with more suspicion than any other loan like a mortgage or a car loan instalment.

The balance transfer is bit tricky; you need to check the benefit you get moving from one company to another. What are the applicable rates? And are there any hidden charges?

One thing I use is I call up my credit company and inform them about my intention to transfer my balance since I am looking for a consolidation. The original credit card company then tries to retain a customer and negotiates a better rate.  Either ways you win. Overall less credit utilisation reflects well on your credit score report

There is another part which is very important and which can negatively affect your credit score is if you were to pay an older credit in full and expect it to do good to your credit report. The reason being if you are paying an old credit which you did not pay so long and it was approaching the Statute of limitation, then it means by paying you have made it current and you did not even ask the people to remove the negative from your credit report. This will decrease your score rather than increasing it.

Improving your credit score on your own is the best way to do it. Please do not try to go for quick fixes they can affect you badly. Especially do not try to get involved in identity theft. People try to create different credit files for the same name.

Gladwyn Riggs is a well known expert in the specialised field of Credit Score improvement. He has come up with an amazing Hand Holding Guide for Rapid Credit Score Increase.

Let’s try to find out the history behind credit scores and how it came into existence. What was the inherent need of having it in the first place?

Bankers and credit card agencies who give loans would like to know the risk they are taking. That in turn also affects the APR they are going to charge. Banks have to provide Non Performing assets at the end of the fiscal year and declare to its shareholders. So each bank had devised a method of trying to find the credit behaviour of its consumer. They had various parameters encompassing the history and length of credit. But it was never standardised.

Later the Fair Isaac Company came up with a scoring model which is very well known in the industry circles as the FICO Credit Score, used by EXPERIAN. This score gives weightage to various consumer behaviour parameters like 35% Payment History, 30% amounts owed, 15 % length of credit history, 10% new credit and 10 % on types of credit used.

Year 2009, the subprime crisis and aftermath have led to a tighter credit market with credit crunch and Banks adopting stricter policy norms.

So what has changed, the banking and credit card companies are getting risk averse. They prefer a much higher score in credit report. Now the logical question would be what this score is. The range varies with the type of loan you are applying and so does the cut off.

Generally, a score of 700+ is considered good for the mortgage related housing loans. A score of 670+ is decent for getting a good deal at the car dealers. The car dealers also tend to ask for a much higher down payment for people who have poor credit rating scores.

It has also been seen that credit reports offered by Credit Rating agencies have as many as 29% serious erroneous reports. 71 % reports have some other error of minor importance. So there is a high probability that your credit report may have a negative which was added by error and so it is imperative that you monitor your credit reports once at least every quarter.

Credit score has been taken as guidance by almost all the major credit card companies and lenders for giving loans and credit cards. It is a negotiating factor during business deals and hence it should be noted by one and all that YOU MUST take good care of having a credit score that is in the higher range.

Credit Score is not a percentage but a percentile and also it is a straight way comparison of apple against apple so You will be compared with a similar background person having similar credit payment history.

Importance of credit score lies in the fact that it brings the extra reliability of payback for the lenders and thereby it increases the chances of you getting a loan.

Credit score is important for securing good loan from a reliable bank which is liquid and has a good market image.

Importance of credit score also lies in the fact that once you have a good credit score, you are assured of a decent APR from a good company. It has actually standardised the process of getting debt and money flow.

Gladwyn Riggs is a well known expert in the specialised field of Credit Score improvement. He has come up with an amazing Hand Holding Guide for Rapid Credit Score Increase. Check it now

How do you go about getting a free score repair? The first step is as simple as just looking at your credit report. This aspect on the road of free credit score repair can help you spot any inaccurate information and avoid any unnecessary problems. Part of checking accuracy includes confirming all the accounts on the report and making sure they are yours or once were yours, including double checking all relevant account numbers for matching. If anything seems not to be right then use the option of a free repair to research thoroughly and take any steps you can to correct them right away.

The next part of taking advantage of a free credit score repair is taking the chance to consolidate most if not all of your high interest credit card debt, turning it into just one low interest one. There are several different places that will help you do this and save yourself tons of money in the end. Not to mention it will also help you raise your credit rating as well.

Another thing that can be done in the way of free repair is transferring balances. This is the similar to a consolidation but is done with existing accounts of your own. It encompasses transferring any of your high interest cards balances to cards that have lower interests. Sometimes these lower rates don’t last very long, but just having a lower payment for a little while can help you get closer to completely paying off your debts.

Of course having the need to take advantage of free credit rating repair is usually not helped by making payments late. This needs to be a priority to pay your bills on time all the time. Late fees can only make your balance increase and make it harder to pay off your bills. Sometimes a due date can be changed if you simply just ask your debtor, most of the time they will be happy to help you out.

There are several other benefits to a free credit rating repair besides just helping improve your score. Having a better credit mark in the long can help you receive better interest rates in the future. You may also have a much better chance at good mortgage rates or car loan rates as well and things that can be needed. As you can see taking advantage of a free score repair can be worth all the effort in the end and you will be more than glad you did.

About the Author
Check out http://www.my-credit-center.com/ for more articles on credit card ratings and accept credit cards internet.

Article source:
Free Credit Score Repair – Is It Really Possible

According to the Fair Isaac Corp. that created the FICO score (the most commonly used credit score), the interest rate difference between those two scores is one-half percentage point. You may also enroll for their great monitoring service. Just click on the link. The good news: You can take steps to improve your credit score by applying easy self help techniques.

Repair Your Credit Today!

There is several ways and variables that play into an individual score make it impossible to say that one particular action will increase a given score by a certain number of points. Sometimes, I have great results when a borrower pays down a credit card or pays off a collection; other times, it makes very little difference. But there are at least some good guidelines to try and follow.

Here are some tips I’ve picked up along the way:

1. The fastest way to a great score is pay your bills on time, keep account balances low, and take out new credit only when you need it. This is mainly about plain old common sense. People who do these things faithfully usually have very high scores. To lenders, high scores signify that you’re being conservative and cautious about credit. In turn, they see you as a lower risk borrower and will reward you with much better terms and a much lower interest rate.

2. What if you’re house hunting and you just need a few extra points to bump you over the line to the great rates? Start by having your mortgage broker, pull your credit report and your credit score to see where you are. If your score is above a 720, you’re golden. Even 700 is going to get you good terms. Improving your score from, say, a 720 to a 740 won’t get you better terms, though, so don’t waste your time doing that. Just continue to follow the guidelines above. What you’re really looking for on your report are factors that could be negatively affecting your score. Look for errors in the report, such as accounts that aren’t yours, late payments that were actually paid on time, debts you paid off that are shown as outstanding, or old debts that shouldn’t be reported any longer (negatives are supposed to be deleted after seven years, with the exception of bankruptcies, which can stay for as long as 10 years). Every time I meet with a client, I go over their report with them to ensure that the information is correct. I can’t tell you how many times there has been old or downright incorrect information in the report! 75% of credit reports contain errors. Hmmmm!!

While repairing errors, the fastest route to a better score is paying down balances on credit cards; in my experience, it’s possible to increase your score up to 200 points or more in 90 days by paying down your credit lines because it helps your debt to credit ratio. 30% of your scores are calculated by how well you manage that area. If you can’t pay them down then you must apply for new credit to offset your debt to credit ratio. What that means is that, the credit scoring system looks at all your credit card limits and your credit card balances and calculates what your credit limit vs. what your balances and shoots out a percentage. So for example, If you have a credit card limits that amount to $10000 and you owe $8000 on them, you are at 80% of the credit limits. Your debt to credit ratio in that case is at 80%. Typically you want to be at 30% or less. If you would like to apply for high credit limits to help your debt to credit ratios visit www.ePublishingUSA.com . They approve anyone with a heartbeat. Let all your friends and family know so you can help them with their credit. From now on, do your best to pay your bills on time (or ahead of time) and keep your balances as low as possible. After 12 monthsthe scoring module becomes immune to that late and your credit scores are not affected.

3. One thing you shouldn’t do if you’re just trying to boost your score is close unused accounts. If someone tells you to close unused accounts to improve your score, don’t listen. It won’t help you and it can hurt you. Closing unused accounts without paying down your debt changes your utilization ratio, which is the amount of your total debt divided by your total available credit. You appear closer to maxing out your accounts. That’s why your score can drop. It doesn’t mean people shouldn’t close them, but don’t close them to improve your score. If you do cut up cards, though, leave the oldest one open! The length of your credit history is another factor in your score. If you close the account of the credit card you got when you were a freshman in college and leave open the ones you just got within the last couple years, it makes you look like a much newer borrower.

Bottom line: know that you’re not powerless when it comes to your credit score. There are a lot of things you can do to improve your score and you need to understand what your credit is like now and what’s influencing your score today. Then you can go out and get that amazing interest rate!

What are you waiting for? Get more info now.

I know from personal experience that having a bad credit score prevented me from getting into apartment after my divorce. I argued with the property manager briefly saying “But I can pay you 2 years of rent up front! Why won’t you let me live here?” She explained that by law they are only allowed to accept three months rent plus the first and last months rent. However, my application to live in the apartment cannot be approved because of my bad credit! You can imagine my frustration. But I just wanted to share with you one example why having a good credit score is more important.

Your credit score is calculated using a something called FICO. It was created by Fair, Isaac Company. It basically takes into account how much debt you have and your payment history over time. If you’ve been making regular on time payments for years, then you probably have a great credit score. If you’ve been late recently, and I mean in the last 6 months, then your credit score is going to drop. And if you been making late payments over and over in the last 6 months to 2 years, your credit score is going to be very poor. If you have a lot of relative debt, which means all your credit cards are maxed out, then that will lower your credit score even more.

So what can you do if you have a low credit score? I’m going to give you a couple of strategies that attack the to biggest factors affecting your credit score.

1.If you have old accounts that are already paid off, don’t close them! Remember, you want to keep your available credit as high as possible for as long as possible. Having more credit available versus your debt improves your credit score.

2.If you have current credit cards with a balance, don’t pay them off right away. For example: You have a $3000 credit card. Every month you charge about $2000 to it, but you pay it off before the end of the month. Although this won’t hurt your credit score, it won’t help it either. You need to carry some portion of that balance over to the next month, even if it’s just $100. Remember regular payments over time improves your score.

Some other things to consider. If you can only make one payment, pay your mortgage first! Followed by installment loans like your car payment, then your credit cards. When you have multiple payments of the same kind, (i.e. two car payments, five credit card payments), pay the one with the highest interest rate first. Even though nothing feels better paying off a small balance and seeing $0 due, you will save more money in the long run paying off the higher interest rate balances sooner rather than later. This in turn will leave you more money to pay off the small balances.

All these strategies and tips will greatly improve your credit score over time. But there are ways to improve your score much more quickly. Get a copy of your credit report and look for errors. You’re allowed to see your credit report free once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus: experian.com, Equifax.com, and transunion.com. If there are any errors, there are simple ways to have them removed. Sometimes it’s as simple as calling the creditor that reported the bad information. Sometimes you just need to write a letter challenging the error. Either way, removing errors in your credit report is the fastest way to improving your credit score.

About the Author
Robert Rogers is a writer in the Washington DC area. For more information on how to improve your credit score visitFree Credit Reports

Article source:
How to Improve Your FICO Credit Score

Fix Your Credit Now
=======================================
There are hundreds of law firms out there that specialize in credit repair. I may get sued for writing this, but it is my opinion that credit repair law firms like Lexington Law are scams. Here is why:

Problem #1: Ridiculous Monthly Charges
Lexington currently charges a $99 setup fee and anywhere from $39 to $79 every month that they work on your file. Since they charge monthly, the longer they take to repair your credit, the more money they make. In fact, some credit law firms tell you that it could take a year, two years, or even three years ($567 to $2,000), which is why they’re getting very rich.

Why pay $2,000 or even $500, when there are excellent credit repair programs available for less than $100?

Problem #2: You Do Most of the Work
Here’s a dirty little secret that credit law firms don’t want you to know: you still have to do most of the work yourself– more work, in fact, than when you use credit repair software (more about that later).

In addition to all the paperwork you have to fill out and get notarized, you must request your own credit reports. Since the credit bureaus mail all documents to you, you will be constantly copying them, putting them into another envelope, and sending them to the law firm. You might have to do this five or six times every week.

The credit repair law firm will then scan your credit reports and post them on the web (security issues?) Then, believe it or not, even with all the money you are paying to the law firm, you still have to go to their website and choose for yourself which items you want to dispute and even how to challenge each negative credit item.

All the law firm does is print out form letters that they send to the credit bureaus. Does it make you a little uncomfortable knowing that the longer they take, the more money they make?

Problem #3: Poor Guarantee
All they have to do is remove one credit card inquiry and they consider that they have done their job, so there is no money back even if 99% of your credit report is still negative after three years and $2,000.

Raise Your FICO Score Today!

=======================================
As you can see, these law firms are often nothing more than letter-printing factories that make more money the longer they take. So why pay so much money to get such little service? Especially since it is possible to accomplish the same goal with much less work at a fraction of the cost.

There is a better alternative to using credit repair law firms like Lexington Law. The best credit repair solution we have discovered so far is Credit Repair Magic at CreditRepairMagic.com. At only $97, it’s the fastest and most cost-effective credit repair solution we’ve ever found. Don’t waste your time with useless e-books or ridiculously overpriced monthly services. Download the best credit repair software anywhere