lynlee39 asked:


I am trying to get my credit report on-line but I do not have a credit card to pay for it. I have already gotten one from annualcreditreport.com but am trying to clean up some more things how can I get a credit report from all three credit bureaus???

Bernice

This Is Not My Real Name asked:


This is somewhat an odd situation. I have had a 2 year credit history with all three credit bureaus prior to this problem. It seems that all of my credit cards have suddenly stopped updating on my equifax credit report. When I try to apply for a new credit card, I get denied because I have “no equifax credit file”
I requested a free credit report with equifax and even they can’t locate me!
It’s as if my equifax credit file just disappeared. But I have previous copies of credit reports from equifax so it obviously did exist. What can I do and what seems to be the problem?

Fyi: experian and transunion is working fine. My credit report is updated and my score is good. But all accounts have not updated since 2007 on my equifax credit report

Paula

Joseph Kenny asked:




It can be pretty tough when your credit is bad and it is next to impossible to get credit when you need it. Most major credit card companies will not talk to you, and a lender – well, forget about it. There is a way, though, out of the tough situation with a prepaid credit card. Here is what you can do with a prepaid credit card to help rebuild your credit score.

Need A Bad Credit Rating

One of the best things about a prepaid credit card is that it was designed for people with bad credit. In fact, that is one of the qualifications. There will not be any check on your credit rating, or your employment. Anyone can get one of these credit cards, but you will need to deposit a cash amount equal to the credit limit you want. This lets you know that it operates on a debit basis – no actual credit is given.

Get A Card That Reports To A Credit Bureau

Not many prepaid credit cards actually report to a credit bureau. That is, however, the kind of card that you want to get. While others make having cash handy, it really will not help you (or anyone with bad credit) in the long run.

Watch The Fees

Prepaid credit cards often come with a number of fees. You should compare one card with another in order to get the fewest fees. In order to get a prepaid credit card that reports to a credit bureau, you will probably have to pay an annual fee – could be as high as $100.

Look For Benefits

Most prepaid cards do not come with any benefits, but some do. You can get points, like on a regular credit card, that are useable for a few benefits – like free phone time, and more.

No Credit Card Abuse

Another good thing about these credit cards is that you can never go over your limit, or have to pay any late fees or interest. (Hey, this is sounding better all the time). This means that if it reports to a credit bureau, that it would be impossible to get a lower score than what you may already have with this kind of card.

Easily Put Cash On Your Card

Most prepaid cards will allow you to easily put credit on it from just about anywhere. You can even put your paycheck onto it by Direct Deposit.

Use It Like A Credit Card

A number of these prepaid credit cards can be used in the same way as a credit card. You can set up automatic bill payments, purchase things online, or over the phone. If you want this feature, however, be sure that the ad says that you can do this.

Like any other credit card, you will want to compare features and fees in order to find the best prepaid credit card for your needs. While most of them are similar, the fees vary widely. Since no qualifications are needed, why not get the best?

Mathew

Debbie Dragon asked:




There are attorneys and credit repair “clinics” that claim to be able to remove negative items from your credit file. The service is costly, with some providers charging up to $3,500. It sounds great, in theory, because what’s a few thousand dollars for repaired credit? The trouble with this service is consumer’s pay out the money and their credit files are not always repaired.

About Your Credit File- What You May Not Know

Every item listed on your credit report must be proven. If a credit bureau investigates an item and cannot verify that it has been reported correctly, then it must be removed from your file whether it’s true or not.

Whenever there is a negative item on your credit report, you can challenge or deny the negative report at any time. If the item can’t be verified within a reasonable amount of time, it must be removed from the credit report. The older an item is the better your chance that it will not be successfully re-verified. Creditors don’t always keep good records beyond a year or two.

How to Get a Negative Item Removed From Your Credit Report

The procedure to get negative items removed, if they are incorrect, is straight forward. Some of getting an item removed is simply luck, but if you follow the steps you will increase your chances of having the negative items removed.

Tip: Send your disputes in during the busiest time of the year for credit bureaus. Send them during November or December, and if the dispute isn’t verified in time, it will have to be removed from your credit file.

Step One: Obtain a copy of all three of your credit reports- one from Equifax, one from Esperian and another from Trans-Union. You can get one copy from each credit bureau for free every 12 months.

Step Two: Review each report and find any negative items.

Step Three: Use the credit bureau’s dispute process (sometimes online, sometimes a printed form) to dispute any and all negative items.

Step Four: The disputed items are removed or corrected.

Step Five: For any negative items remaining on your credit report, you can try to negotiate with the creditors to be able to make a lower payment to pay the account off The creditor must then report the item to the credit bureau as paid, and change it to a positive rating.

Consumer Rights Under The Fair Credit Reporting Act

The federal laws are in the consumer’s favor when it comes to credit reports. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, there are 5 basic rights given to every consumer:

1. You may challenge the accuracy of the details in a credit report at any time.

2. Any items you challenge must be investigated (and re-investigated) without a charge to you.

3. All challenged items must be investigated within 30 days time or they must be deleted from the file immediately.

4. If errors are found during the investigation, the credit bureau is required to delete or correct the item within your files immediately.

5. If the credit bureau investigates and finds the negative items to be correct, consumers can place a Consumer Statement as part of your credit report as explanation to any inquiries made to your credit file.

Edwin

Richard H Hughes asked:




The US government is compelled to provide every citizen with a free copy of their credit report every year. This is one of the various ways of receiving your free 3 credit bureau reports. This way you can monitor your financial situation and at the same time weed out any errors on your record.

If you still need an easier way to get your credit report, there are several bureaus which provide you with a free copy of the credit report. In case you would want to get a legitimate copy you would do best as to inquire with the government approved credit reporting firms such as Experian, the Equifax or the TransUnion. According to the standard procedure when you take a loan or use your credit card, your payment patterns are recorded in a report which is then presented to each of these three firms. However generally, discrepancies arise because some creditors place this report to only one agency thus leading to inconsistency to your profile in general. Hence your details are generally and should be reported to all three firms to maintain a consistency in your financial record.

As a small example, if your profile has been submitted to say TransUnion only and not Equifax or Experian, in that case only TransUnion will have your accurate profile and the other two firms will have ratings that is inconsistent with your profile in TransUnion. In such a case it is important that you check all 3 credit bureau reports at least once a year and undo any inconsistency that may have arisen. This in turn will help improve your record and allow you to get better rates of interests on subsequent loans.

Each of the three firms mentioned have been entrusted with the task of providing citizens with their credit reports, so if you want to get your free credit report, you can request a copy individually from each of the firms. They are bound by laws to comply. The other obvious procedure for getting your credit bureau report is to apply online through one of the various websites that provide you with the report. Once you place a request at any of these websites they contact the three official bureaus for you and then they send your free 3 credit bureau report. This is a very convenient method and is the most popular method.

Wayne

Skyler asked:


I won a judgement against a corporation, and I am wondering how to report it to Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. I called the court that issued the judgement and they said that I am responsible for reporting it to them. Any addresses, phone numbers, or other info would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
bddancer – Actually I’m a credit underwriter at Wells Fargo, so I know for a fact that there are business credit reports, some ‘top contributor’ you are. Thanks for the random attack for no apparent reason.
Yes it does make a difference to credit decisioners, most will not make a loan if there are outstanding judgements; I know because I turn them down daily. Who trusts someone to make a loan who hasn’t paid and stole from others in the past?

Phyllis

Jon Arnold asked:




In my mind, the credit bureaus demonstrate time and time again that they are run in a slipshod manner with little respect for the accuracy of the credit reports they distribute. But the good news is that with persistence and documentation, you can beat the credit bureaus at their own game, although you are going to need to really be persistent and not lose your cool at the incompetence you will undoubtedly meet when you are working with them.

As an example, a friend of mine was checking his credit reports and discovered an item which was charged off and determined “uncollectable” from several years earlier. The item was not a large amount, less than $50 but it was still a glaring negative listing in an otherwise pretty good looking credit report. The bill was from the cable TV company where they had claimed he had never paid his final bill.

Of course, he went through the proper procedure to dispute the item. Although most items like this do not appear on all three credit bureau reports, this one did. Remember that of the three major credit reporting agencies, some of your debtors reports to one of them, two of them, and occasionally all three of them. This means that in order to truly get your credit report as accurate as possible, you need reports from all three of them, since NONE of them have a truly complete picture of your credit history.

The dispute he filed was not answered two months later. The rules are that if the credit bureau cannot verify the information within 30 days, the item must be removed from your credit report. But it was more than 30 days and the item remained. He filed another dispute and got a letter back from the credit bureau that the item had been verified as accurate.

No way! He called the cable TV company and they went back through their records and verified that the final bill should not have been sent since he had moved out of that condo by then, and that the amount should not have been reported as overdue or uncollectable. So how had the credit bureau “verified” it as correct? The only answer was more incompetence on their part.

So with a letter from the cable TV company, he filed yet another dispute. The credit bureau sent him a letter several days later saying the item had been verified again and would remain. So he filed yet another dispute, this time sending the dispute via certified and registered mail with the letter from the cable TV company, and this time it did get removed.

The lesson here is that you need to be persistent when you are trying to get inaccurate information removed from your credit report. With that item corrected, my friend’s credit score shot up by more than 55 points. Don’t just file a dispute and think that will take care of it. The credit bureaus really don’t care, and they also know that the vast majority of consumer credit reports contain errors, so they do not seem to be motivated to get those errors corrected. Be persistent and provide documentation and it will happen but you will need to bird-dog it all the way.

Jon

qdeezy asked:


I have about three past accounts that are in collections. I am trying to take care of all of them but two of them (a cell phone thats in collections and an old bank account) are not on my credit reports! I know that the banking industry has ChexSystem that they report to but do they also report to the other three major credit bureaus? And why isn’t the cell phone account on my credit report even though it’s in collection status. They have not been trying to contact me about the past due account or anything. Will they report it later or do they report to a different bureau also?

Pamela

Tina L Douglas asked:

There are a lot of reasons why your credit rating will be very low. There could be errors on your credit report or you have been a victim of identity theft. For whatever reason, it is important that you monitor your credit score so that you will not be shocked and frustrated when you apply for credit and you get denied.

If, for some unforeseen circumstances, your credit report reflects inconsistencies, don’t worry. You can dispute these wrong pieces of information and fix your credit score in a jiffy. Here are some three simple steps on how you can fix your credit card report.

Step Number One: Request for your credit report.

If you really need to find out if there are really errors in your credit report, then you need to have a copy of this very important financial document. This is not a very big hassle, you can do it online for your convenience as the three credit bureaus have their own online counterparts. The law provides that you can request for one credit report annually from each of the three credit bureaus. But you can also request for your reports via phone, email and there is also another option to have it downloaded directly. Also you can request free credit reports online from credit monitoring services through their free trial membership program.

Monitoring your credit report is important in maintaining the integrity of your credit status. This will ensure that no other person/s are using your personal information for their identity theft and malicious activities.

Step Number Two: Scrutinize and review your credit report carefully.

Some people find it hard to read credit reports. If you don’t know what you are looking for, that might be very hard. The report often starts with your personal details and you also have to make sure that all your details indicated therein are all true and no consistencies exist.

Then you can proceed to check the trade lines which are the overview or summary of your credit accounts as well as all transactions that you’ve done with these accounts. It would reflect your payment history as well as the amount that you still owe. This is where you should be very careful because if an identity theft criminal, for instance, opened a new account under your name, this is where it will be reflected.

Step Number Three:

The final step that you have to do is to write a dispute letter addressed to the credit bureau. If you are not sure on how you should write your letter, you can search for a sample of a dispute letter online. You should attach any documentation, receipt or any evidence that you might need to establish that you should not be held liable for the inconsistency that is reflected in your credit report. Once you have written your dispute letter, the recipient will then have 30 days to respond to your application and remove any disputes if in any case, they are able to establish that the accounts posted on your credit report is not yours.

Derek

Hector Milla asked:




There are three credit reporting bureaus which although do similar business, may come up with varying reports. Different individuals and professionals work in the firms and thus it’s expected that their conclusions even on similar things is different. With this in mind, a consumer would therefore be better off if he considered the three reports before making any conclusions on his credit condition. Actually a review of the three reports should be done before conducting a final analysis.

A typical 3-1 credit report will contain consumer’s basic information i.e. name, address, date of birth and employer. It also has a consumer statement and accounts histories while the public records section is a log of events such as bankruptcy and judgment filings. There is also a section with a list of creditors and their contacts.

There are two types of 3-1 credit reports; the first comes with a single score and has an advantage in that one gets all the three reports from the three firms but the shortcoming is that the consumer ends up getting one score from one bureau. This means that if the bureau has a bias in its conclusion then the consumer will be affected and will actually end up getting the wrong idea as regards to his/her credit position. This may lead to loss of investment opportunities because most lenders will need to look at the three reports each with their scores before approving a loan.

The second type of a 3-1 credit report is very similar to the first one but in this case each report has its own scores. This means that the consumer may end up having three different scores for his/her report. Thus he/she will be in a better position to understand his credit situation. Lenders also feel more secure when dealing with a client with scores from different agencies because it means that the likelihood of a biased report are very minimal. This kind of report can also be useful to the consumer as a personal regulating tool to ensure that his credit path stays on track by regularly checking the scores and analyzing his performance.

Adam