Is Your Credit in Shambles? Repair It Now
A Credit Article Contributed by Mark Mcclelland
How Do You Know You Need to Repair Your Credit?
How do you know you need to repair your credit? Well, it's not always obvious at first, but weird things happen - like being turned down after applying to one of those mass mail offerings for a "0% introductory fee" credit card. Or having the last check you wrote rejected by the electronic check scanning system, or getting that niggling feeling that something's wrong, that this sort of thing shouldn't be happening to you? After all, you've always paid your bills on time...
Well, the odds are that you're right, there is something wrong, and the likelihood is that your credit history is all bollixed up and you need to do a bit of repair work to set things right again. The point here is that you need to listen to yourself with your "inner ear"... Understand that this isn't as much a testament to new-age thinking as it is a hard and cold fact of living in today's wired world.
In line with the old saw "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" comes the new: "if something SEEMS wrong, something IS wrong". And in these cases it's something financial and you need to find out what that something is and repair it as soon as possible.
Who Do You Contact to Repair Your Credit?
Determining exactly what's wrong with your credit history is easy; you simply requesting your credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
Each of the credit reporting agencies is required, under the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) and the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), to provide consumers with a free copy of their credit report once every 12 months, upon request of the consumer.
But be ready for shock if you haven't already seen one. You'll probably be surprised at the amount of (what you may think of as personal) information those agencies will provide you with on your credit reports. And these organizations are also the first place to go when you try to repair any of the erroneous or fallacious data.
However, if your credit reports do contain erroneous data, don't blame the reporting agencies. It helps to recognize that these organizations simply collect and store the data provided to them by others - like your employers, the banks that have issued you your credit cards, and the like. The most likely source of any errors on your credit reports are those companies that you have a financial relationship with. In spite of that, the reporting agencies are also required to make every effort to help you repair or correct any erroneous data contained in your files.
How Often Should You Check to See If You Need to Repair Your Credit?
Unlike issues regarding the actual source of erroneous data, or those that arise when you attempt to correct the reports, the question of how often you should actually check your credit history is much clearer. Check you credit history at least once a year and communicate with the credit reporting agencies immediately to repair or correct any mis-information. So don't wait for that niggling, creepy-crawly spine-tingling sensation, check your credit history, and repair any erroneous data they contain now - your financial future will thank you.
