The first step in credit repair is getting copies of your credit REPORT. , credit REPORT and credit scores are 2 different things , let me explain ,
There a quite a few different companies out there that collect information about you , the most common 3 companies are equifax, experian and trans union. These 3 companies are very similar and they just collect info about all your financials. The way the information is collected is via the banks. Meaning, its up to the citibanks, or the other big credit card issuers to report your basic info every month , basic info includes usually your name , social security number, credit limit , credit balance, and whether you paid on time or were ever 30 , 60 , 90+ days late. , Same with the mortgage companies, or the car loan banks . In most cases , phone companies , and utility companies dont report on your credit report UNLESS, you are in default and they send a collection agency after you , so in that case you will probably have a negative.
Most of these banks update all your info to the major 3 credit bureaus , experian , trans union and equifax , so in most cases you will have the same info on all your credit reports. However , every once in a while , for some reason that is unexplained , a specific credit card account or a mortgage or whatever will somehow not be reported on one of the bureaus, or sometimes a charged off loan from a collection agency will only show up on 2 of the 3 ,... what im saying is , that sometimes the info is just a little different , sometimes the balances are different or not updated correctly on some of the credit reports. Thus making each of your credit reports a little different.
The first step in credit repair would be to get a copy of your three credit reports , these days you can get a copy for free because of some federal law that was passed sometime in 2004 or 2003 , try getting it from the government run website , it should be totally free without having to commit to anything and it wont ask you for your credit card info either www.annualcreditreport.com , you can only get it once a year for free .
Now dont be confused between credit SCORE and credit REPORTS , the reports simply display the info that they get from the banks , thats it!!!, they dont add anything of their own , they dont try to piss people off , they simply collect the data thats submitted to them and they display it on the reports....
credit SCORES are totally different , and ill explain. When someone wants to apply for credit or other financial privelages they fill out an application which is distinguished mainly by the social security number . A social security number is like a financial ID # that follows you and identifies you throughtout the financial world. So when you apply for credit or loans, the bank such as Bank Of America or some other bank that your using will decide to 'pull your credit' , meaning they obtain a copy of your credit reports and view the info on it and then decide whether you meet ther criteria for their loan or credit card. However , the application process these days is so quick , with decisions made within minutes or even seconds , its also very tedious for the banks to actually view each credit report and look over the info. in most cases , they will just pull one credit report from just one of the credit reporting agencies , since they feel they are about the same they can cut time and costs and just pull one . for example , in NY if you apply for an amex card , they usually pull trans union reports ...if i recall , citibank will pull equifax , theres actually a website that has a full , user submitted database of different banks and which credit report was pulled , and varied by the state as well , if someone wants me to post it ill research it in my notes and post it , leave a comment and let me know
theres a company called Fair Isaac & Co. , many of you never heard of this company , but perhaps you're more familair with its nickname , FICO , ..these guys had the brilliant idea of being the middleman between the banks submitting borrower applications and the 3 credit reporting bureaus. Fico would take every persons report and depending on the specifics of it , they would use a numerical scoring system , the range of scores is 350 - 850. So , instead of bank employees analyzing a credit report everytime someone applied for credit , they can now just decide that they are allowing anyone with a 620 or above is accepted , and 580 below is rejected and the in between they can do a manual review or whatever criteria . and this is how the fico credit scores work ....
Dont be fooled....... There are plenty of different companies selling credit scores , even each of the credit bureaus sell a credit score , and each of them have their own way of analyzing the data on the reports and ssome even have the same criteria as FICO , however , ALL these other scores are USELESS !! , Even the credit scores that trans union ,equifax and experian sell are useless , and the simple reason is because , 99% of the time , when a bank seeks a credit score to grant loans they will use the FICO score , so when purchasing a credit sore , make sure to purchase from www.myfico.com , which is the website for FICO , all other scores are useless
recap , get your Credit Reports in 2 ways , either directly from each credit bureaus website ,
Experian http://www.experian.com
Trans Union http://www.transunion.com ,
you can also get it cheaper at some 3 in 1 websites , like
CreditReport.com - http://www.creditreport.com
Free Credit Report.com http://www.freecreditreport.com
and for your credit SCORES , go to
FICO ( fair isaac & co. ) http://www.myfico.com
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