Obtaining Your Credit Report You can get your credit report for free. No, there’s no gimmick. There’s a law requiring the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and Transunion) to give you a free copy each year. However, as you learn more about credit scores you’ll...
Why The Credit Bureaus Suck! If everyone on the planet had one dollar each, these 3 companies would be worth more than the combined population of the Earth. All together, these businesses grossed $8,414,000,000. That’s more than half the gross domestic product of Iceland. They service...
Credit Scores and Marriage The “ties that bind” don’t combine your credit histories when you marry. Every person’s credit score is tied to his/her Social Security Number, so it doesn’t make a difference if you change your name. Your credit score also doesn’t change when you...
Credit Score Basics A credit score is a three-digit snapshot of your creditworthiness. Several different versions exist, from the ever-popular FICO to VantageScore and RiskView. Some are customized for mortgage lenders while others are customized for auto lenders. The usual range of these credit scores is...
Understanding Your Credit Report Let’s take a look at what the credit bureaus say they know about you. Are you who they think you are? Find the section that shows your name, Social Security Number, and address (sometimes it’s on the first page, sometimes it’s on the...
Hard or soft, that’s really what matters when it comes to credit inquiries. Soft inquiries When you look up your own credit history or score, that’s a soft inquiry. It doesn’t damage your score at all. If you use a credit monitoring service, chances are that...
Student Loans Your Credit Score Your student loans are a reflection of the dreams you had when you started school. But now your financial goals are at risk because of those loans. You may have heard that paying off student loans too fast can hurt your...
Credit Score Myths Credit scores and credit scoring systems are complex and at times hard to understand. As a result there’s a lot of misinformation that floats around the public sphere and as with anything this can sometimes lead to widespread rumors that just simply aren’t...
Insurance Rates and Credit Scores It seems like almost everything is affected by credit scores. Most people probably don’t think about insurance as being something that is affected by their credit scores - what does one have to do with the other? Unfortunately, insurance rates in...
FCRA, The Fair Credit Reporting Act October 26, 1970 was the day the Fair Credit Reporting Act started protecting you against mishandling of your credit information and gave you access to review it yourself. But why is the FRCA a big deal? In the wild days before...