Free Annual Credit Report

Your credit report is compiled by the three credit bureaus, Experian, Transunion and Equifax, in order to keep a running history about your spending and credit. These bureaus are licensed and approved by the government and are essentially the gate keepers of our credit history. However, the major issue with this system is that the majority of people don’t know about dings on their credit reports until it comes time for them to make a purchase requiring a line of credit (ie: a home mortgage, a car loan, etc). Furthermore, most people don’t realize that there are steps that can be taken to repair and improve your credit report and restore your credit history.

Consumers should always keep in mind that their online credit report is a crucial piece of their financial life and a deciding factor in many of their financial decisions. Consumers should always check, maintain and protect their credit history by regularly obtaining their Free Annual Credit Report to ensure that they are in good financial standing. This is the single easiest and most efficient way of locating erroneous data on your credit report.

After obtaining a copy of your free annual credit report and identifying all accurate / inaccurate information, you should begin to note all of the mistakes found in the report and detail a plan on how to repair the mistakes as soon as possible. Be aware, however, that in order to fix the errors on your credit report, you need to be prepared for a long winded set of procedures and filings with different government agencies and possible legal issues. You will have to contact not only the credit bureau, but also the creditor reporting the erroneous information in your online credit report. This will involve submitting your credit report dispute in writing by mail and to get a confirmation in writing.

After following the above procedure of getting your credit report restored, you may still have some negative marks on your online credit report. If this is the case, you may need to contact the FTC.gov and hire legal representation. If your online credit report shows bad payment history and a high debt to income ratio, you will need to perform some additional steps to restore your credit report:

• Start establishing a positive payment history. This includes paying off your credit cards on time, not defaulting on payments and living within your means as far as auxiliary purchases go.
• Creditors will want to see recent positive credit history, usually within the last two years, as well as long-term credit history.
• Try and keep a low dept to income ratio (this is the percentage of income that you have left over after paying your existing debt). Most creditors like to see the dept to income ratio at about 36% as to not see you as a credit risk.
• Spend wisely!

A bad credit report can ruin your financial life. Consumers should take full advantage of the free annual credit report. Experian, Transunion and Equifax are all required to provide the annual credit report free of cost and you should not hesitate in obtaining yours. You should make significant efforts towards deleting any inaccurate and negative information from your credit report and establishing a good credit report credit so as to ensure future financial freedom.