Credit Bureau Problems

The Federal Trade Commission
Consumer Response Center
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Suite 130
Washington, DC, 20580
Phone: (877)-FTC-HELP
Website: www.ftc.gov

To receive a copy of your credit report, credit reporting agencies typically request your full name, address, social security number, date of birth, place of employment, and a copy of your driver's license. The credit reporting agencies already possess most of this information, as reported by your creditors, but need you to verify it to make certain they provide you with the correct report.

If you are denied credit based on the contents of a credit report, the creditor must give you the name and address of the credit reporting agency that provided the report. If you contact the credit reporting agency within 60 days after the creditor's notification, the credit reporting agency must provide a free copy of your credit report.

After receiving your credit report, you should do the following:

• Review the credit report for inaccurate information. If you find a mistake or error, write to the credit reporting agency, explain the problem, and request the correction of your report. Include copies of canceled checks, receipts, or other documents to verify payment or identification with the correction request.
• Contact your creditors directly, to ensure that their records are correct. This may be another way to correct inaccurate information on your credit report.
• Remember that credit reporting agencies must remove accurate information after seven years and bankruptcies after ten years. Otherwise, credit reporting agencies do not have to remove accurate information, no matter how negative.
• When a credit reporting agency receives your correction request, it must investigate and remove or correct any inaccurate information that is not verified within a reasonable period of time, usually 30 days. Note: A credit reporting agency may ignore frivolous correction requests.
• At your request, the credit reporting agency will send a corrected copy of your report to anyone who received the incorrect version within the past six months.
• If, after the investigation, you are not satisfied, you can file an explanation with the credit reporting agency that will become part of your credit report.

CREDIT SCORES

According the to most widely recognized credit scoring model, developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation (known as a FICO score), the following categories of information make up your credit score, in order of significance:

• Payment history (35%), including delinquent payments, bankruptcies, judgments, liens and collections on past due accounts
• Amounts owed (30%) on various accounts, including the type and number of accounts
• Length of credit history (15%)
• New credit (10%), including the number of recently opened accounts, and proportion of accounts that are recently opened, by type of account
• Types of credit used (10%) including credit cards, retail accounts, installment loans, mortgage, consumer finance accounts, etc.

Credit scores do not take into consideration gender, race, religion, marital status or national origin.

It is difficult to improve your credit score significantly in a short period of time. Be cautious of unsolicited e-mails or Internet sites that promise to fix your credit “overnight.” Some basic tips on improving your credit score over the long term include:

• If you have no or little credit, establish some. Don’t apply for multiple credit cards, but select one credit card you can afford and use it wisely.
• Pay off all outstanding loans or credit accounts on a timely basis. Try and avoid making minimum or “interest only” payments.
• Keep your credit card balances low, or paid off. If you are “maxed out” on your credit cards, lenders will become suspicious about your financial stability.
• Check your credit report on a regular basis and challenge any incorrect information that you find. See “Credit Reports” in this Resource Guide for more information on obtaining your credit report and challenging incorrect information.

The Nichols Team, LLC
Real Estate Agents Denver Colorado

Steve & Annette
Owners/Brokers
303-316-0166 Office
303-322-3507 Fax