Posts Tagged Credit Inquiries
Personal Credit Report
Your personal credit report is truly a gold mine of details about you. It has your date of birth, telephone numbers, Social Security number, residence and employment histories, credit payment behavior as well as your legal information. Checking your credit information carefully and familiarizing yourself with all your rights on credit reporting are among the best ways to protect your privacy.
A consumer like you usually has three credit accounts and they are not the same. One of your records may contain information that the other two reports do not. It happens because your creditors and lenders may forward your information to only one or two of the major credit agencies who separately reports data. By monitoring your credit account from the “big three” credit bureaus, you can avoid delays on paying your debts, thus improving your credit score. Moreover, it can also help you stay away from identity theft and fraud.
At times, your credit record may contain information that is incorrect and these can affect your eligibility to make a loan. To be able to check your credit report well, it is important that you know the various sections comprising it and what each section contains.
Parts of a Personal Credit Report
o Consumer Information – this is the part that contains your name, birth date, current and previous address, and employer.
o Credit information – this is a very significant portion of your report since it holds complete information regarding your revolving collection or credit accounts, real estate mortgages and other financial transactions. Every record has the date and the place where the account is opened, the high balance, the terms as well as your payment history.
o Credit Inquiries – your report has a list of individuals or entities that have accessed or have received a copy of your credit history in the last two years.
o Consumer statement – this is the part where you can put a short message such as an explanation for late payments or a fraud alert that happened during a certain period.
o Public Records – this part encloses details of declared bankruptcy, judgment filings and tax liens
o Creditor’s Contact Information – this final part of your credit record has the phone numbers and mailing addresses of your creditors which you can use in case you need to get in touch with them.
There are pieces of personal information that cannot be included in your credit record and these are:
o Medical records (unless the CRAs have your consent)
o Race, Marital Status and age – these details can’t be included if the one requesting for your record is your current or future employer
o If you are residing in California, your records of misdemeanor complaints and arrests should be removed from your file after seven years. Under federal law, however, the accounts of criminal convictions can remain on your credit history for an indefinite period.
o Debts that are over seven years old
o Declaration of Bankruptcy that is done 10 years before
Also, there are certain types of information that may stay on your file forever. If for instance, you are applying for insurance, credit or employment more than the dollar limits mentioned below, the data can remain on your credit history even after the seven or 10 years deadline.
o Record of a job that gives you above $75,000 income
o Unpaid tax liens
o A credit deal that involves or that is anticipated to involve, $150,000 and above
o Life insurance or credit application for more than $150,000
Who can Access my Personal Credit Report?
Any Individual or Entity with a “legal business need” can view or have a copy of your credit history, plus:
o Insurance companies
o Local child support enforcement bureau
o Landlords
o Those who are considering your credit application
o Current or prospective employers (only if they have your conscience)
o Any department of the government (usually restricted to your name, former and present addresses and current and past employers)
o Your credit account company (for record monitoring purposes)
o Departments where you are applying for a government license or benefit (if they are required to take your financial status into account)
In general, only your present or potential employer needs your consent in order to obtain your credit history.
In this era of rampant identity theft, there is a strong need to review your personal credit reports regularly to check its correctness. Remember that it will be used in order to make critical decisions, like your capacity to get loans and credit cards. Hence, you should make sure that your reports are correct and up-to-date.
Marcus
Ghosts That Lurk in Your Free Instant Credit Report
It isn’t Christmas, but did you know that there may be entries in your credit report that are much like the ghost of the Christmas past? This is especially true if you make credit applications, even for just a simple credit card, in too short a timeframe. Let’s look at a scenario.
Let’s say you’ve been able to keep your credit score in good shape, you’ve got one credit card, no loans, and you’ve just been promoted and got a hefty raise. So you want to treat yourself a bit to a new car and sell your old clunky one. Why not add in a new credit card? So you go off to that wonderful world of the internet, fill up and submit several credit card applications – not one, but six of them.
If your personal credit report already looks good and your credit score is something to be proud of, chances are you’ll get approved on several of the applications you filed. But wait – think about what this will do to your credit score! For every credit application you filed, several points will be taken away from your score. Credit experts say that the number of points our credit score will be affected by credit inquiries depends on your credit history and overall profile. This means that if you’re a high scorer, your score could be dinged by just 5 points for every inquiry, but if you’ve got a low credit score it could be higher. And, the number of inquiries matters too. Lenders will think twice about granting you credit if you have many inquiries into your instant credit report. They say that statistically, people who have six or more inquiries into their reports are more likely to declare bankruptcy than those who don’t have any.
Credit inquiries are likely to stay in your report for about two years. So those six credit applications, plus three inquiries from car dealerships you’ve talked to while window shopping for a new car, that means nine credit inquiries. Now do the math: nine inquiries at 5 points each, that means 45 points taken away from your credit score. Then, these inquiries will remain in your free instant credit report for two years. Somehow, that doesn’t seem so good anymore.
Have you submitted any credit application or inquired about credit cards, loans, or mortgages lately? The best thing to do is to get your credit report for free and then scrutinize all your credit inquiries. Try to recall the circumstances relating to each inquiry. When you were at the car dealership, did you expressly state that you were going to buy your car from them? Did you give out your credit information without thinking twice even though you were just window shopping? Many of us make the mistake of giving away our confidential information without thinking carefully before we do. That careless disclosure of your credit information to the car salesman just cost you about 5 points from your credit score.
Think twice about disclosing your financial and credit information to any lender. Learn where to get your free instant credit report and how to check your credit report for errors so that you can improve your credit profile and raise your score.
DARRIN
What to do if landlord is up to fraudulent behavior using the personal information of others?
Posted by admin in Renting & Real Estate on November 7, 2009
I recently applied for an apartment for rent by private owner. I provided my personal information when filling out the rental application. I now feel the woman never had plans to rent the place, and is using an “apartment for rent” as a front to obtain the personal information of others to commit fraud.
It turns out, my co-worker happens to know this woman personally, and says she recently filed bankruptcy, does not own the property, and was renting it from a relative.
What should I do? If the above is true, she’ll deny we met. This woman has my social security number, personal information, and more. Is there any way to tell when someone pulls your credit to apply for an apartment? I don’t think those type of credit inquiries appear on credit reports.
What should I do to prevent fraudulent behavior? There are Michigan laws protecting landlords, what about those for tenants?
MAYNARD





