Credit Score Guide

Understand Your Credit

Trying to understand how credit works can be frustrating. Most people do not even know where to begin when trying to identify their personal credit rating. There are three major credit bureaus that report your credit status. These three credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. All three also keep your FICA or credit score. This score can give you the best idea of how your credit ranks.

Your credit score is an integral part of your financial life. It is important that you understand what it’s all about. Lenders, landlords, insurers, utility companies and even employers look at your credit score. It is derived from what’s in your credit reports, and it ranges between 300 and 850.

Yet, according to a survey that was recently conducted, nearly half of all Americans don’t know how these scores are derived or even what factors are used to come up with them.

After filing for bankruptcy several years back, I had to figure out what I needed to do to improve my credit score and have been diligently working toward this end ever since. Now, while still not perfect, my credit score has been improving ever since because I took the steps to learn about what I needed to do to improve it. In this article, I provide some of the steps I’ve taken and some of what I learned in my research to improve my own credit score.

Do you check your credit score and credit report before you go shopping for a car? You might find out that it is well worth your while to do so, as some auto dealers are taking advantage of the fact that many consumers do not know their credit scores.

Several months before you begin to look for a home, you should take steps to get “credit approved” for your loan. Your first step should be to make a list of all your existing loans and credit cards, with the company names, account numbers and monthly payment amounts. This will help you to analyze the information shown on your credit report. Include all closed loans and credit accounts if these records are available.

1) Get a Financial Check-Up

What is a Credit Score Report?

One of the first steps in repairing or improving your credit score is to find out what your current credit report looks like. A credit report is a detailed report generated by a credit bureau for a prospective lender. This report includes an individuals debts and the timeliness of their repayment, employment and residence history, any judgements, tax liens, or bankruptcies. Based on this information, a credit score is determined which is a number from 400 for a low score and 900 for a high score. Credit scores are used by lenders to determine if you qualify for a loan or service. The lenders use these scores to estimate the amount of risk they maybe exposed to by providing you with their services. Basically the higher your score the less risk you represent to the lender.

Summary: Credit scores and reports became accessible for a reason. It is to give you the option to habitually check your report.

Credit scores and reports became accessible for a reason. It is to give consumers the option to habitually check their reports. So not checking your credit reports from time to time is like building a house without windows; you’ll never know what’s going on outside.

Summary: You can always do something in improving your credit score which has become a major deciding factor for most loan and credit approval.

Denied while going for a loan suck; most especially since if you go for a loan, it’s because you need the money. While there’s nothing to be done about your loan, you can surely do something in improving your credit score

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Many people are unaware of what a credit score actually means. In fact, a survey of 1,000 Americans taken in September 2004 demonstrated that only one third of people knew that a credit score was a measurement of how likely a person is to pay off a loan. Having a good credit score is necessary when it comes to applying for loans for cars, mortgages, and credit cards. Furthermore, having a bad credit score can lead to denial of basics such as a phone line in your home. Therefore, it is important for consumers to understand how a credit scores affects them and how it is determined in the first place.

Summary: start checking your credit report and score once in a while. What you might not know about your account could cost you more than you hoped for.