Why Should You View Credit Reports?
Posted on 23. May, 2010 by admin in Personal Finance
Credit reports are valuable tools any consumer needs to be aware of. Monitoring your credit is vital to maintaining a healthy credit score as well as improving it. Being aware of your credit also helps you track unauthorized uses of your information, which could potentially mean your identity has been stolen.
There are three main groups that decide what your credit score is based on information they gather from lenders, collection agencies and utility companies. Any inquiries about your credit are reported to these three agencies. Excessive inquiries will reduce a person’s credit score. A person should monitor their report closely to ensure their credit is not being checked without their knowledge.
Knowing what is on your credit report can give you an idea about what you can expect to pay in interest rates. Lenders base their lending practices, as well as interest rates on credit scores. Lower scores will result in limited lending or lending with high interest rates.
It is also important to stay on top of the reporting agencies. It is not unheard of for inaccurate information to be posted to an individual’s report. These inaccuracies can be disputed but in many cases, they take several months to resolve. Once the situation has been resolved, it may still take a while to be completely removed from your credit report.
