Your Credit Report

Your credit report is a record of your history of borrowing and repaying and it includes any details of your late payments or bankruptcy.

Every time you fill out an application in a bank, a store or a credit card company for credit the information is also sent to a credit bureau. The credit bureau adds this information to all the other information that is held under your name and address. This is the information that creates your credit report.

This information is in turn used by lenders such as banks and credit card companies to work out your credit worthiness, how much credit you have outstanding and how promptly you pay your bills, loan and credit card payments. If you dispute any of the information held by the credit bureau, they have 30 days to verify the data. The majority of these disputes (over 70%) are resolved in 14 days and according to the Federal Trade Commission 95% of those who dispute are satisfied with the outcome from the credit bureau.

There are many companies who attempt to make money out of consumers by charging them to check their credit reports and confirming the information that is contained in them. But, US law states that the three major credit bureaus Experian, Trans Union and Equifax have to provide a copy of your credit report when requested, for free, once a year. This free service is available from www.annualcreditreport.com This free report does not give you your credit score, but does provide a list of accounts so that you can check that no errors have been made.