Credit Report America

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 25 August 2009

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A sound credit report is a must for safeguarding your financial health in America. A bad credit history can severely impact your borrowing capacity. Since a credit report is a complete analysis of an individual’s past borrowings and includes information about late payments, missed payments or bankruptcy, it acts as a reference point for any organisation that wishes to enter into a financial relationship with you.

Information Stored in Credit Reports in America

Credit bureaus, the organisations designated with the task of collecting credit information, record the following details:

  • Personal Information: This is recorded to identify and distinguish you from others and contains your name, address, date of birth, phone number, employment history and social security number.

  • Public Records: These records include information related to your finances given by the court systems. This includes tax liens, foreclosures, wage garnishment or bankruptcy.

  • Inquiries: This includes the times and the names of the people or organisations that have inquired about your credit history.

  • Trade Lines:  Probably the most important part of a credit report in America, this section includes vital information about loans. This may include the creditor’s name, amount of the loan, type of loan, account status, minimum payment, last activity, date borrowed, maximum balance, amount past due, comments, last payment.

 

Errors in Credit Reports in America

Errors are not uncommon in credit reports, since a slight displacement of digits in the social security number can cause confusion. However, before you set about fixing these errors, it is important to collect evidences in hard copies.

One can take two approaches to fix a credit report:

  • Fixing it at the credit bureaus
  • Fixing it from the creditors’ end who reported the credit default

The first step is to identify what is wrong and then send a letter to the credit agency with all the required documents. Explain the error and include the following points:

  • Personal information
  • Address at the time of the dispute
  • Creditor’s name and the account information

Credit agencies usually reply in 30 days. In the meantime, you can try to approach the creditor and solve the issue through different ways.

Also remember that a bad credit report could be a result of the link that exists between you and your partners (in cases of Add-on cards) or due to a clerical mistake. Therefore, ensure that you identify the cause and then set out to fix your credit report – America.


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