December 26,2008
-
Fixing Your Credit Report, Pt.4 –
– Understanding the report.Not all of the bureaus use the same order when itemizing our credit reports, so I'll provide examples here using the current format used by Experian for a credit card type report:
1) Alerts: These are listed first with Experion. They are often listed as ‘derogative items", the ‘badies'. Again, these will probably look bad but may carry a reduced importance weighting toward credit cards and may not have as much effect on our final FICO score. However, if we're enduring bad credit for some reason, the clue will probably be found in this section. Typical items listed here are credit card defaults, bankruptcies, foreclosures, collections proceedings, garnished wages and lawsuits. You are given the opportunity here to dispute any of these entries and have them go on record.
2) Account information: All of your credit accounts will be listed here. These may be divided into two categories, ‘good standing' and other then that. Note that, even closed accounts can still show here for up to 10 years. Each listing will include lender information, the account type (credit cards, uncollected medical bills, mortgage and even private revolving like Wal*Mart gas cards, Sears and HSAs [Health Savings Accounts]). Credit limit, current status, debt balance, payment behavior and general activity can be found here (and in great volume). Especially here, check any remaining balances listed. Often times when an account is paid off (a very good report) the lender fails to notify the bureau of this and an old remnant of what you once owed still remains on your report. If an account has been closed, is that reflected here?
3) Inquiries: There are two types of inquires, but only the ‘Hard' ones can hurt us. These are the result of some actions we have taken and a determination was required based on those actions. Too many ‘hard' inquiries can hurt us. They can indicate financial instability and remain on record for about two years. "Soft" inquiries are not caused by us and not included in the rating process. They are usually vendors who are looking for good customers and want to offer us something good (like sweet credit card deals). They are also used as general monitoring by our lenders.
4) Personal information: This can be very detailed and go back over 15 years, including former addresses and ex-telephone numbers. The orders are scrambled so as to track a person, but a Geographical Code showing Metropolitan Statistical Area associated with each address is given. Every derivation that was used for our name (alias, or names used by us on credit cards and other documents) is also given here. These are largely gathered from companies that submit info about us and is not well-checked for accuracy. The SSN may or may not be mentioned, mine wasn't.The law provides for us to dispute accuracy with the credit bureau. That bureau is charged with investigating our claim in a dispute and must respond within 30 days. Inaccuracies and unverifiable information must be removed within 30 days from the credit history report. Negative credit card information may not go back over seven years, but bankruptcies can go back 10 years.