Posts Tagged Credit Bureaus

The Importance of Credit Reporting Laws

Jeremy L Roberts asked:




Credit reporting laws in the United States can be rather difficult to understand if you are not an attorney or don’t happen to work in finance. When it comes to your personal credit, understanding credit reporting laws is important.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is one law every consumer should know. It was originally signed into law in 1970 and it guarantees the confidential, accurate, relevant and proper handling of all consumer information collected and recorded by the credit bureaus. It also gives consumers the right to request a copy of their credit report and scores. The only provider that is legally authorized to give you this report once a year is annualcreditreport.com.

This law also requires that written disputes be investigated within 30 days by credit bureaus. Here, any information deemed inaccurate or unverifiable shall be removed and kept from reappearing on your credit report.

Another important credit reporting law is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This law was enacted in 1977 in an effort to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors and to ensure that those debt collectors who refrain from using them are not competitively disadvantaged. It also promotes state action that is consistent in protecting consumers against such debt collection abuses. It prohibits several activities considered to be deceptive or harmful to consumers such as: lying, misleading or harassing. This law is enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and annually reports to congress regarding any issues that involve it. Here, a debt collector is defined as any person who uses any method of interstate commerce of the mail in any business for the purpose of collecting debts.

This means the rules of this law do not apply to the company who extended the original credit line, but instead are only relevant for collection companies who were hired or contracted by the initial creditor involved.

When it comes to how your credit is reported and what the scores mean, you need to have a rough idea of how it all works so you will be able to interpret any problems and come up with a solution for repairing them. After all, your credit is a very important part of your life in general as it affects many different aspects all at once.

Pamela

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Securing Business Credit Cards Without Personal Guarantee

Sherry W. Gain asked:




The biggest problem for budding entrepreneurs and small business owners is to secure a credit for their business. The most obvious route they take is to mingle their personal credit with business loan, a faux pas in totality. They end up spending their credit worthiness through their personal loan cards. But do you know that the same financial institutions which provide you credit cards also issue small business owners with business-credit cards without personal guarantees? Of course, your business needs to be credible for obtaining such credit lines.

Once you have established a credible business entity, it is then your duty to establish its credit worthiness. This is attained by reporting the transactions on your business loan cards to business credit bureaus. Similar to a personal credit report, a business credit report is essential to build the credit worthiness of your business. Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax Business and Experian Business are some of the business credit report bureaus you should be targeting. Unless and until you have established your credibility with at least three of them, laying your hands on business credit cards without personal guarantee is tough. If you are thinking of applying right away, consider the information presented below -

• If the business loan application of an organization is declined, the organization cannot apply again for the following 6 months.

• The application will be disqualified if it is made thrice or more within 90 days.

• Very few, or just 5 percent of business lenders care to report your credit worthiness to credit bureaus. Not reporting it impedes the credit worthiness of your business. Thus, choose business establishments that regularly report your regular payments to business credit bureaus.

Business Credit Cards and No Personal Guarantee

It means that it is possible to get business credit cards without personal guarantees. Such type of an application is usually made by small business organizations and entrepreneurs to take care of sundry expenses.

How to get Business Loan Cards?

To get business loan cards, a few things are of integral importance

A Strong Business Plan: The primary requisite to impress any association into allowing you credit, is a great idea. Prepare the plan in a detailed and strong manner focusing on its harvests and how it shall empower you to make more money. Be very specific about the areas which are going to need monetary help.

Market Research: Do your research well. Talk to vendors and buyers about the cash flow and other specifics. In some cases, you need not even approach companies for credit cards, because you will be able to find vendors who are ready to hold credit accounts. However, if you do need business credit cards without personal guarantees, a strong knowledge of the functioning of the industry you’re in is essential.

Applying Well: Start small and choose a local vendor for your card. More often than not, your existing finance company would have an offer for business credit cards and it will be easier to secure one from them too. Furnish information such as your company’s contacts and financial documentation to the issuing institution. In case of small businesses, primary owners also need to present information about personal finances. Legal paperwork like your DBA and employer tax ID might prove necessary for your application for business credit cards without personal guarantees.

Kathleen

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Credit Report – Your Personal Financial Profile

David T. Johnson asked:




A lot of people don’t know about their own credit report. Some people even don’t know that it even exists. Because of this, they tend to regularly neglect payments for their loans or their credit card bills. The result: a bad credit score. Basically, you have to remember that your score is your financial profile. It tells a lot about you financially and it is what determines whether creditors or lenders will approve you for the loan or the new credit card you applied for or not.

The credit report is what creditors take a look at in order to determine if you are risky to lend money to or not. This is what basically tells them that you are a good payer or you are a delinquent one. Even landlords take a look at their prospective tenant’s credit report to make sure that their future tenant will be able to pay the rent on time and also make sure that they will never run away in the middle of the night with payments worth 3 months rent.

As you can see, it is very important for you to make a good credit score by making a good credit report. Although the credit bureaus are the ones who make the report, you have to remember that they base the report on what you do financially.

In order to get a good credit report and a good credit score, you need to be able to make payments on or before the due date. By doing so, it will be recorded in the report and will have a positive impact on your credit score.

Basically, you alone are responsible on how your credit information will look like and how much credit score you have. If you are a good payer and you only made late payments once or twice, you will be able to get a positive report and score. In fact, if you are a good payer and you only have one late payment because of an unavoidable situation, then you can even have the negative report removed.

These are the things that you have to remember about credit report. It is your personal financial profile that you alone are responsible for making.

The better you pay off your credit card bills and your loans, the better your credit score will look like. So, you definitely need to take your repayments seriously. If a bill arrives, pay it off as soon as you can and never ever think about paying it off next week because you are lazy to get out of your couch and go to the bank. Your laziness may cost you your credit score and will give you a bad name in the eyes of your creditors.

These are the things that you need to remember about credit score, credit report and why it is very important for you to repay your bills on time.

However, there are times where your credit report might be bad even if you know you pay off your bills and loans on time. It may be caused by credit card fraud or it may be caused by mistakes made by the credit bureaus themselves. Just get a copy of your credit report and if you see any irregularities, dispute it, prove it and it will eventually clear up.

Your score is your financial profile. Always make sure that you have good credit in order for you to have more financial freedom by paying off your bills on time as well as constantly reviewing your credit report at least once a year.

Debra

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

Personal Credit Report – Credit Reporting Data From Many Sources

Hector Milla asked:




A personal credit report is a document that every person over the age of eighteen with a social security number has. When people open accounts or get issued loans their social security numbers are placed on file so that the history follows them for many years to come. In order to survive long term financially, people need to ensure that the data that is coming from sources is accurate or problems can arise.

Many sources report consumer data to the three major reporting credit bureaus about consumer credit information. Credit card companies, banks, courts, collection agencies, student loan lenders, mortgage servicing firms, etc. When a person makes a payment, this is directly reported within a few days of the check being cashed by the financial institution.

Every payment that consumers make or miss typically gets reported because most people have consumer accounts, loans, and other liabilities that need to be paid on time every month. A person’s financial rating depends on their amount of debt, open accounts, delinquencies, bankruptcies, and payment history. If a person has let too many payments lapse then their scores will be considerably low and they will be considered a risk to lend to. Many financial institutions pull their customers’ credit data report on a monthly basis. If a person has a bad rating then these companies can reduce money borrowed, increase interest rates, and deny additional cards from being issued. This can really impact wallets and checkbooks everywhere.

If people find inaccuracies in the data that is reported then they should dispute the negative items to the company that has issued the report. It is important to keep apprised on if the negative items were resolved because a few errors can reduce the overall score. Now even opening a cell phone account, getting Internet and cable access, and moving into a new apartment or home require a check of credit history so staying organized is crucial.

If you want to improve your scores you need a credit reporting service. This also helps to protect consumers from identity theft because it lists all the accounts that a consumer has in their name. Identity thieves commit fraud by stealing social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, and other forms of personal information to open new accounts without their victims’ knowledge. Prices are completely reasonable and negligible $15-25 per month for consumer reports and it is well worth the financial investment to ensure financial solvency.

Stella

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

The Importance of a Business Credit Report

Francis Murphy asked:




A business credit report is a report that indicates the creditworthiness of a company. A document like this can be obtained from a bank or a credit reporting agency. The information contained a business entity’s current financial position and credit history as well as public records such as bankruptcies, foreclosures and judgments. Information for a credit report is largely culled from creditors and similar sources.

It is important for a business to maintain a solid report. A good business credit report can be critical to obtaining favourable financial terms for a business when creditors are reviewing its creditworthiness. A good credit history is also influential to help customers decide who to do business with. Credit reports can help businesses manage their credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Essentially, this helps maintain the financial security of a business entity and is an indicator of the business’ financial health.

Business credit reports can be obtained from credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus. These companies provide and store personal credit histories as well as provide credit reports upon request. Unlike personal credit reports, permission is not required from business owners should a person wish to request a business entity’s credit report.

Those who request a business credit report are known as “end users” and they are not allowed to show the report to anyone else without permissible purpose. However, it is not illegal to resell credit reports, although the reseller must indicate the end user and their permissible purpose.

It is not enough to assume that a favourable personal credit score can secure your business a good business credit score. Every business should encourage its vendors to report your payment history to credit reporting agencies so that such information is on file. Separating your personal report from that of your business ensures that your personal credit standing will not be affected should your business face any risks.

Business credit needs to be constantly managed and monitored so that anyone who views your report receives current information.

Ida

, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

No Comments

TransUnion Consumer Education Video Part 2.wmv

TransUnionCredit asked:


Simplistic overview of credit bureaus and your personal credit report. You have the right to your Free Credit report every 12 months in South Africa from TransUnion on www.mytransunion.co.za.

Norman

, , , , , , , , ,

No Comments