Posts Tagged ‘Equifax’

Credit Report – How Do Late Payments Affect My Credit Report and Score?

Posted in Finance on 09/02/2010 09:29 pm by
Helen Hecker asked:




Of course you don’t want to make any late payments on your credit cards or loans and affect your credit report and score unless you absolutely have to, but what happens if you’re unable to avoid it? It all depends on whether you’re 30, 60 or 90 days past due. If it’s only one late payment you may be able to dispute it and get it removed from your credit report but if it’s more than one that may be difficult to do. And it depends on whether it’s currently past due or long term past due, and other factors.

Understanding how FICO credit scoring works for late payments will help you avoid late payments and understand which late payments will show up for the long term and which payments won’t.

Put simply, FICO credit scores are used by credit card companies, loan and mortgage companies, utility and insurance companies etc., to predict how reliable you’ll be as a customer and how much they can trust you make the payments.

If you’re 30 days late on a payment it will affect your credit score only when it’s reported to the credit bureau. The same applies to 60-day late payments. However these are considered short term and may not cause any lasting damage to your scores. If this happens over and over then this will not be the case. Also a one time late payment of 30-60 days may never be reported to the credit reporting agency. You can avoid a lot of worry by finding out if the creditor reports a currently 30 or 60-day late payment or not. Many do not.

If you’re 90 days late it’s another matter. This can damage your credit report and score for seven years, unless you can get it removed. If it was in error or you had some special circumstances and your credit history has been good then it is worth a try by writing a letter to the credit report company. The three main credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax and Trans Union.

Credit card companies and other creditors look at 90-day or 120-day late payments as a red flag. They can no longer trust you to make your payments on time so your credit score will go down. Their purpose is to determine whether you’ll be able to make your payments on time or at least before 90 days have passed. It doesn’t matter if the payment was for $25 or $1000, they will look at it the same way.

Also sometimes late payments may cause a rise in the interest rates on your credit cards.

If you can avoid making any late payments you’ll dramatically improve the scores on your credit report. And if you haven’t gotten your copy of your personal, annual, free credit report online yet then get one now. Study it and then find out how your current creditors look at late payments. Call them up and find out if they report a 30 or 60-day late payment to the credit reporting agency.

Best of all find some emergency ways to completely avoid making any late payments. Try making your payments online a few days early to avoid payments getting lost in the mail. If at all possible find things you can sell or do some small part-time work from home and try to make a small emergency fund.

Do anything you can to avoid making a late payment. But if it happens, make it as soon a possible so it doesn’t go into a 90-day problem. Ninety days is the point where it’ll be difficult to turn things around and seriously affect your credit report and score and future borrowing opportunities. It’s best to spend a little time learning about credit reports, how you can fix or repair your credit report and scores now and how you can raise your credit scores fast. You may be doing some things you had no idea would cause your scores to drop.

Micheal
 

How Student Loans Affect Your Credit Score

Posted in Finance on 09/01/2010 08:44 pm by
Justin Parr asked:




If you’re about to graduate–or if you’ve already finished college–chances are you’re paying off student loans. But what exactly happens with your loan debt now that you’ve entered the repayment phase? Will they impact your ability to obtain credit? And how do they affect your credit scores?

Let’s start from the beginning

When you left school, you enjoyed a grace period of six to nine months before you had to begin repaying your student loans. But the debt was there all along–sleeping like an 800-pound gorilla in the corner of the dorm room. Once the grace period was over, the gorilla woke up and is now impacting your credit–but is it positively or negatively?

One way to find out is to pull a copy of your credit report. There are three major credit reporting agencies, or credit bureaus–Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union–and you should get a copy of your credit report from each one. Keep in mind, though, that while institutions making student loans are required to report the date of disbursement, balance due, and current status of your loans to a credit bureau, they’re not currently required to report the information to all three, although many do.

If you’re repaying your student loans on time, then the gorilla is behaving nicely, and is actually helping you establish a good credit history. But if you’re seriously delinquent or in default on your loans, the gorilla will turn into a monster and wreak havoc on your credit history.

What’s your credit score?

Your credit report contains information about any credit you have, including credit cards, car loans, and student loans. The credit bureau (or any prospective creditor) may use this information to generate a credit score, which statistically compares information about you to the credit performance of a base sample of consumers with similar profiles. The higher your credit score, the more likely you are to be a good credit risk, and the better your chances of obtaining credit at a favorable interest rate.

Many different factors are used to determine your credit score. Some of these factors carry more weight than others. Significant weight is given to factors describing:

Your payment history, including whether you’ve paid your obligations on time, and how long any delinquencies have lasted Your outstanding debt, including the amounts you owe on your accounts, the different types of accounts you have (e.g., credit cards, installment loans), and how close your balances are to the account limits Your credit history, including how long you’ve had credit, how long specific accounts have been open, and how long it has been since you’ve used each account New credit, including how many inquires or applications for credit you’ve made, and how recently you’ve made them
Student loans and your credit score

Always make your student loan payments on time. Otherwise, your credit score will be negatively affected. To improve your credit score, it’s also important to make sure that any positive repayment history is correctly reported by all three credit bureaus, especially if your credit history is sparse. If you find that your student loans aren’t being reported correctly to all three major credit bureaus, ask your lender to do so.

But even when it’s there for all to see, a large student loan debt may impact a factor prospective creditors scrutinize closely: your debt-to-income ratio. A large student loan debt may especially hurt your chances of getting new credit if you’re in a low-paying job, and a prospective creditor feels your budget is stretched too thin to make room for the payments any new credit will require.

Moreover, if your principal balances haven’t changed much (and they don’t in the early years of loans with long repayment terms) or if they’re getting larger (because you’ve taken a forbearance on your student loans and the accruing interest is adding to your outstanding balance), it may look to a prospective lender like you’re not making much progress on paying down the debt you already have.

Getting the monkey off your back

Like many people, you may have put off buying a house or a car because you’re overburdened with student loan debt. So what can you do to improve your situation? Here are some suggestions to consider:

If you have several student loans, consider consolidating them through a student loan consolidation program. This won’t reduce your total debt, but a larger loan may offer a longer repayment term or a better interest rate. While you’ll pay more total interest over the course of a longer term, you’ll also lower your monthly payment, which in turn will lower your debt-to-income ratio. Ask your lender about a graduated repayment option. In this arrangement, the term of your student loan remains the same, but your payments are smaller in the beginning years and larger in the later years. Lowering your payments in the early years may improve your debt-to-income ratio, and larger payments later may not adversely affect you if your income increases as well. If you’re really strapped, explore extended or income-sensitive repayment options. Extended repayment options extend the term you have to repay your loans. Over the longer term, you’ll pay a greater amount of interest, but your monthly payments will be smaller, thus improving your debt-to-income ratio. Income-sensitive plans tie your monthly payment to your level of income; the lower your income, the lower your payment. This also may improve your debt-to-income ratio. If you’re in default on your student loans, do not ignore them–they aren’t going to go away. Student loans generally cannot be discharged even in bankruptcy. Ask your lender about loan rehabilitation programs; successful completion of such programs can remove default status notations on your credit reports.

Javier
 

Fix My Credit! How to Repair My Credit Score

Posted in Finance on 07/27/2010 02:38 am by
Michael G. Harris asked:




Many people today are saying, “Fix my credit!” They want quick solutions to repair their credit score. Getting rid of bad credit can seem like one of the toughest things on the planet. However, if you can repair your credit rating, then you can get more out of life and be treated with the respect that you deserve. Read on and discover 3 steps to repair your credit score.

First, it’s important to obtain a copy of your credit report. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com and you’ll receive a free copy of all 3 reports. You are entitled to receive one free copy each year from the major credit reporting agencies of Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. Then, look for mistakes on your report.

Second, report any mistakes to the consumer reporting company by writing a letter of dispute. Tell them, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate. Include copies, but not originals, of any documents that back up your position. In addition, be sure to provide your complete name and address and each item in your report you dispute. State the facts and the reasons you dispute the information, and ask that it be removed or corrected.

Third, enclose a copy of your report, and circle the items in question. Send your letter by certified mail, “return receipt requested,” so you can document that the consumer reporting company received it. Keep copies of your dispute letter and enclosures.

Credit reporting companies must investigate the items you question within 30 days. They also must send all the important information that you provide about the error to the organization that provided the information. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the consumer reporting company, it is required to investigate, review the important information, and report the results back to the credit reporting agency.

By taking a few action steps, you can repair your credit score. Remember that credit won’t fix itself. It does require you to take action to get the results that you deserve.

Lewis
 

Fix Credit Legally

Posted in Finance on 07/11/2010 02:25 am by
Hyder Khan asked:




Are you being denied credit everywhere you go because you have bad credit? Are you being offered outrageous interest rates for a loan-refinance or for the purchase of a new home? In the United States, negative items remain on your credit report for at least 7 years. Did you recently run into some bad luck?

If any of these situations have happened to you, then you are not alone:

 

Do I Fix My Credit by Myself Or Use Credit Repair Services?

Posted in Finance on 06/02/2010 03:05 am by
Tony Banks asked:




The credit restoration process involves two main options; do it yourself or seek credit repair services. Rebuilding a good credit rating requires sound knowledge along with some time and effort. In order to decide which route to take, here are a few factors that you want to keep in mind.

Understand the Laws- There are governing laws that apply to both credit repair agencies and individuals, these laws need to be properly understood before undertaken a credit restoration effort. You have laws such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Accurate Credit Transactions Act to name a few. Each of these affects what Equifax, Transunion and Experian can report on your report.

Communicating with credit bureaus is a time staking process which requires that some mail and letters be sent amongst other processes. With DIY repair you can expect to spend at least 5 hours in total on the process with the exception of the time taken to educate yourself on applicable laws.

On the other hand a credit repair company would handle the construction and mailing of all the different dispute letters to the bureaus. Therefore using a repair company saves time.

Cost- The amount of money available to be invested in the credit restoration process plays a huge part. While the DIY credit repair method would not cost so much and does not require monthly payments to anyone, Credit repair agencies require upfront payment to cover for communication cost required to successfully conduct a restoration process. A down payment of about $100 and monthly payments of $45 per month may be required.

Whichever option you choose, you are sure of successfully repairing your credit issues.

Fred
 

How To Quickly And Immediately Improve Your Credit

Posted in Finance on 05/15/2010 11:13 am by
David Maillie asked:




Many people have and suffer from bad or marginal credit. This does not mean they are a bad person as bad credit can happen as a result of a sudden unplanned illness or emergency, a job layoff, etc… Many families do not have sufficient savings to ride out a serious and costly emergency or job loss. Actually, according to MSN, many families are living only one paycheck away from bankruptcy and this is not good. To stop this one needs to put reigns on all unnecessary spending, but we will talk more about this further on.

The first step anyone with possibly bad credit needs to take is to find out the exact extent of your credit. You may have only seen 1 credit report or only been told what might be on your record by a bank or loan manager or finance manager, but did you know there are really 3 separate credit reporting agencies and each has a different report and score? Just because one credit report shows as bad doesn’t necessarily mean the others do, and vice versa, if one is good the other two may be quite the opposite. Usually, as a rule, they are similar, but negative items or entries do tend to stay longer on some then others and some tend to have more errors in their entry reporting.

Go online to any of the three major credit bureaus (Just Google the names of Experian, Equifax, and Transunion) and pay to have your all three in one report with credit score pulled. You want all three as they can and probably will be slightly different. The report is necessary so you can actually measure and understand exactly how bad it is and what needs to be done to improve and fix it. A all three in one report is around $40 to $50 and worth it. Free reports which you can receive per recent federal laws will only give one credit bureau and no score (how do you know where you stand without a score unless you are a finance manager or work at a bank loan department?)

If your score is 600 and above your credit is marginal, but not bad. You won’t have too much to repair. If your credit is 500 or below you probably have a lot of negative entries, possible tax liens, judgments, repos (car repossessions), a possible bankruptcy, and/or other serious negative influences and entries in your reports. A low or bad credit score will take more work and effort, but you can still achieve a much higher credit rating and fairly quickly.

Now, that you have your credit report and scores, find out which is the most important credit reporting bureau for your area of the country (each bureau has a particular area of influence). The easiest way to do this is to contact your local new car dealer and ask the finance manager what credit report they most commonly use to establish credit. Usually it is only one and that is the one that will be most influential in your area and the first one you should repair.

Glen
 

Credit Improvement – The Fastest Way to Fix My Credit Scores

Posted in Finance on 05/10/2010 12:05 pm by
Tony Banks asked:




Your credit scores are the single most important piece of information on your credit report. They are also the one thing that a lot of lenders use to qualify you for loans and determine the interest rate you are going to receive. In this article I will review a few different ways you can fix your credit scores to get approved for cars, homes and other type of loans.

The first step is to find out what your current scores are with the three main credit bureaus. Once you have this information you can begin the task of raising them with each of the them. (Equifax, Transunion and Experian) The key is to understand the criterion that is taken into consideration when calculating your scores, this way you know exactly what to do to raise your scores.

Having recent negative entries on your credit report deleted will boost your score by a good number of points, the reason is that this is one of the main things that go into the calculation of your credit rating. This can be accomplished by disputing the items with the credit bureaus.

If you do not have any credit accounts on your report you also need to begin a credit history which can be done by obtaining secure credit cards or having someone you know co-sign for a loan for you. Making timing payments on such loans will further help boost your scores as the scoring formula looks at your payment history on loans that you have on your report.

Clara
 

FICO Score Calculation

Posted in Finance on 05/01/2010 07:02 pm by
Josh Riverside asked:




The firm Fair Isaac Corp. developed a computer model to aid the three main credit bureaus Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. The model uses a scoring method depending up on your credit information such as credit history, current credit, credit balance, and credit applied for. This information is then compared to the thousands of other customers to give you a FICO score.

The breakdown of the calculation is- past payment history worth 35 percent, outstanding debt is 30 percent, length of credit for 15 percent, new credit for 10 percent, and type of credit is 10 per cent.

All this information is time sensitive. In other words, the score is calculated at the time of request. Therefore, the score is based on what is recent. It will evaluate any delinquencies and bankruptcies in the past, but it will also assess how many late payments you have on the date of request.

Similarly, if the amount of credit utilized by you today is 75 per cent of your total available credit your FICO score is likely to go down as against a person, who is only utilizing only 25 per cent of his or her available credit.

Also note that during the calculation of such FICO score, all other personal information is kept secret. The score is not evaluated on the basis of sex, race, religion, or your marital status.

If you are aware that you may apply for credit sometime soon, it would be advisable to improve your credit status. However, note that this quick fix can only deal with current credit issues and not the ones which have been present there for years. The best step you can take is pay off your credit cards and any other outstanding bills. This will reduce your balance owed and result in a higher FICO score.

Pearl
 

Fix Credit: Dispute Negative Info on Your Credit Report

Posted in Credit on 03/23/2010 11:07 am by
Michael Brazier asked:


You as a consumer have rights under the Fair Debt Reporting Act to dispute negative information contained in your credit report. You can dispute negative or falsified information on your credit report by writing a dispute letter to the credit bureau that contains the negative blemish. This can usually be done online as well, while youre reviewing your credit report. Free credit reports are available through sites like annualcreditreport.com and disputes are enabled through a simple click through feature per each entry on the report. Once a dispute letter has been mailed or submitted online the law then requires the credit reporting agencies to take action for the consumer by conducting an investigation of said issue.

With these easy to follow steps you can easily write an effective dispute letter to the credit bureau.

Obtain your credit report: You can obtain a free credit report once a year or if you have been recently declined credit. Annualcreditreport.com provides a truly free credit report that can accelerate the process of sending snail mail. I mean, it is 2009…Order a copy from all three major credit bureaus. Experian, Equifax, TransUnion.

Become Sherlock Holmes: Read through your report with a fine tooth comb…or a slow scrolling mouse…Look for falsified information that may indicate you have been a victim of identity theft. Check the history of revolving accounts for false details, negative statuses, and outdated remarks that may be eligible to be removed.

Specify the items in dispute. Be very specific as to what item youre referencing and as detailed as possible as to what the dispute involves. If you have to use snail mail, send a copy of the credit report along with your dispute, circling which mark is being referenced. Online users can take a screenshot of the online credit report.

Separate the masses: If youre disputing several items youll want to send the disputes individually. As tricky as credit can be you have to imagine the men behind the curtain arent over willing to make that extra effort and sift through pages of email gripes or a manila folder as thick as a bible pointing out mistakes their organization has posted. Make it easy on the credit bureau to review each dispute individually. This is more to your benefit than theirs, trust.

Play nice: CAPPING every word isnt going to come off as cordial. As upset as you may be that you have erroneous marks on youre credit its best not to express yourself as a demanding impatient tyrant. Make your dispute personal and professional. Be polite. They can –read- your smile, lol.

Just the facts maam: Were not writing novels here. These are dispute letters. A definitive, professional, polite, one to two liner dispute per item. You have your goal, stick to it and lay out the facts. Point out the errors and request corrections and confirmations.

This is America! Keep in mind that you have the right to dispute marks on your credit report. Credit bureaus are required to investigate your dispute and can take up to 30 days to research and reply with the outcome of the investigation.

Follow up: Upon completion, you will receive a letter or copy of your credit report that shows their findings from the review. Should you not receive a response after 30 days send another letter reminding them of their obligation to respond and satisfy your submitted dispute. If you do not receive a reply thereafter your next step is to contact the FTC and file a formal complaint against the credit bureau. In the few cases where it escalates to contacting the FTC the disputed items are usually removed immediately for negligence and lack of evidence to support the negative mark.

More Help: If youre credit report looks like gibberish a non-profit credit counseling agency will usually review your report with you for free over the phone, via email, or in person should the service be local. Contact our certified credit counselors at our BBB Rated A+ non-profit credit counseling agency for a free review of your credit report and more helpful information to get your credit back on track. We help people fix credit scores and reduce debt through free financial information and debt elimination programs. Get on the road to financial freedom with Freedom Debt Management, 800-905-1563.



Judy
 

Figuring Out Your Credit Score

Posted in Real Estate on 12/21/2009 10:00 am by
Jennifer Stromsteen asked:


One of the first things a lender will do before granting a loan for a home is to run a credit check on the buyer. This will help them assess they buyer’s ability to pay a loan and see how they have managed their bills and money in the past. A credit report will show the money that comes in and goes out and how much a buyer will be able to afford. There is a lot to be told with a simple credit report. Yet so many first time home buyers have no idea what their credit score is or even how to find out. According to one consumer credit counseling service “the first time people think about their credit is when their in the market for a home. Often the last thing they do in the buying process is to look at their credit report, but that is really the first thing they should do. Your credit score will determine the interest rate you get or even whether you will be extended a loan at all.”

When first considering purchasing a home the buyer should run a credit report; everyone is entitled one free report a year. There are three companies that provide credit information, Experian, Equifax and Transunion and you can obtain your credit report from them online. Look closely at your report and identify any information that is not correct; dispute this immediately. When your report is pulled before you begin shopping for your home you will have time to fix errors, improve your score and you won’t fall in love with a home you simply cannot afford.

Even if you go to your local credit bureau to obtain your credit report it usually is a small investment. It is not uncommon to have information that is false on the report and fixing these errors as soon as you can helps to obtain the loan with the best credit rates as possible.

A FICO score is appointed to you based on your credit report. FICO is the most widely used scoring system and stands for Fair Isaac Corporation and is intended to demonstrate the likelihood a borrower will default on his or her loan or declare bankruptcy. To obtain the score, generally a borrower is compared to other consumers. One borrower that has two late payments over 30 days will be scored against similar delinquent-payers. That borrower will then be graded according to risk variables used by the scoring model and will be ranked within the group of similar borrowers. Most of the larger banks and lenders build their own credit scoring models and will use that.

Statistical models to generate a credit score is subject to federal regulations that prohibits a credit scoring model from using biases such as race, skin color, religion, sex and marital status. The credit scoring model must also be empirical and statistically sound and if a borrower is denied based on the credit score the lender must state the specific reasons such as “too many delinquencies.”



George
 
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