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What is a credit report? Where does the information come from? Who uses it? Read on for answers to your credit report questions! Our credit experts will give you the scoop on credit reports and how they impact your life.
Anyone who has ever applied for a credit card, loan, or cell phone has dealt with their credit score. This illusive three-digit number impacts the rates and terms you'll receive on everything from a mortgage to car insurance. Understanding and managing your credit scores can help you save thousands of dollars on life's big purchases. Here's what you need to know about credit scores:
Did you know that you are entitled to a free credit report from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion once every 12 months? Under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions (FACT) Act, the three national credit bureaus are required to provide this free service. In this article, Credit.com's experts show you how to order your free credit reports, reveal hidden tricks to make the ordering process go smoothly and give ideas on how to make the best use of this free service.
Your credit data impacts a wide range of financial decisions. Credit card, mortgage, insurance and employment decisions commonly use credit report information in the evaluation process. Inaccurate and fraudulent information on your reports could lead to costly increases in your rates. From checking your credit reports for errors to correcting inaccuracies, the following tips show how you can keep your credit reports accurate and healthy.
This step-by-step guide shows you the best way to correct inaccurate information on your credit reports. First, check the expiration dates of the records. Next, customize our sample dispute letter and send your correction to the credit bureaus. Keeping your credit reports accurate can be that simple!
A growing number of people purchase products and services on credit-either with credit cards or by taking out other types of consumer loans. Americans borrow to buy cars and trucks and put less money down when they buy homes, as home prices escalate in many parts of the country.
Consumer credit is a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. As more consumers use it, more merchants need to accept it. And, as more merchants accept it, more consumers use it.
That's why it seems as if everybody wants to offer you credit these days. If you shop at a department store and you pay with cash or by check, many employees have been trained to ask you to open up one of the store's own charge accounts.
Credit has a steady, cumulative effect on the way people buy things. The car industry is a good example of this creeping influence.
Through the 1960s, most Americans paid cash for their automobiles. If a person borrowed to buy a car, he or she would usually make a large down-payment (often half the purchase price) and take a one- or two-year secured loan through a local bank.
In the 1970s, auto makers decided to finance the purchase of their products in a systematic way. They marketed two- and three-year loans which required smaller down payments.
Like the automobile industry, the university education industry has used credit to create new customers and sell them more expensive product.
With university tuition costs rising faster than other prices, many students are encouraged to borrow money through any of several government-sponsored loan programs. As a result, they graduate with incredible debt loads.
For example, in 2004, the annual tuition at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) was $6,585.52 for a California resident and $23,541.52 for a nonresident. That didn't take into account housing, books, meals or any other living expenses.
While all consumer credit-based spending has been rising, the jump in home mortgage debt worries economists most.
From 2001 to 2004, home mortgage debt increased 25 percent (after adjusting for inflation), according to the Senate's Joint Economic Committee (JEC).
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