How to Handle an Unknown Charge-Off on Your Equifax Credit Report

It is not uncommon to find an unknown collection account on your Equifax report. It is actually estimated that more than 20 million reports have an error serious enough to affect the outcome of a loan they are interested in receiving from a creditor. These errors are due to the massive amounts of data that are inputted and removed by the bureaus.

Their main focus is selling your file to lenders, while the task of making sure the file is accurate lays in your hands. The first step to having inaccurate accounts removed is to "dispute" the entry with the bureau reporting the negative. You can do this by mail in a simple but straightforward letter saying the account is "not mine".

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You want to instruct them to investigate the account with the creditor. This MUST be your first step...most people get this wrong by contacting the creditor first! Keep in mind that this type of letter to the bureau is your right according to the fair credit laws. You should hear back from them no later than 30 days from the day your letter arrives at their office. Equifax will let you know the outcome of their investigation in writing.

If they claim that the outcome of their investigation proves the account is accurate, that's the point you want to contact the creditor asking them for their "method of verification". They are to provide you with the details of how they gave verification to the bureaus that the information was accurate.

How to Handle an Unknown Charge-Off on Your Equifax Credit Report

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The Advantages of Having a Good Credit Score

There are many advantages and benefits of having and maintaining a good credit score. If you have a credit score of 720, 740, or 760 and up, you have a good score. With high credit scores you will be able to save money each month with lower interest rates on all your financial products.

You will also notice you get a better reception by the car salesmen, home lenders, and even insurance salesmen when you step into their office. They know they have a better chance with closing the sale with you because they can get you approved for a loan at a low rate that you can afford and one that you will be happy with.

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A above average credit score will entitle you to demand the best interest rates on home loans, home equity loans, credit cards, car loans, personal loans and more. And in most cases lenders should have no problem accommodating your requests. You've earned your credit now put it to good use.

Another of the advantages of having good credit or good scores to be more precise since you do have to maintain a good score with all 3 of the major credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian, and Transunion - is that potential employers will not turn down your application because of your credit history. You stand a better chance of landing a job with a high score as opposed to a low score.

Even if you do not agree with the way most companies use credit scoring information, if you want to get into their game, you have to play by their rules.

And when you do play by their rules, you get to enjoy the benefits of low rate balance transfer offers even when credit is drying up for less than qualified applicants. You still get the perks of being disciplined and not overextending yourself and spending more than you could afford to pay back.

As you can see, there are many benefits and advantages of having a good credit score. To get into the high 700+ credit score range, pay all your bills on time. Stay on top of the due dates like a hawk. Only use a small portion of the balance - less than 25% is ideal. Keep accounts open - 10 to 15 years at a minimum. And don't apply for credit you do not need. Follow these simple steps and you'll be on your way to the best deals on credit anywhere.

The Advantages of Having a Good Credit Score

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Tips On Avoiding Bad Credit

Having a good credit rating is one of the most important factors to your financial well being. A person or couple with a good credit rating can be approved for a mortgage, credit card, car loan, or personal loan with a lot less difficulty than a person with bad or poor credit. Your credit rating is extremely important and if you would like to increase the opportunities available to you due to a good credit rating, here are some tips.

Obviously the most important tip to avoiding bad credit is to be responsible and pay your bills in a timely manner. However, since life throws a few curve balls, discrepancies can arise, identify theft and fraud can happen and an unexpected lay off or illness can throw a persons credit rating in a downward spiral.

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If you are having difficulties paying your debts and would like to avoid bad credit, the best advice is to contact your lender immediately and communicate to them the problems you are having. Most financial difficulties are temporary and many creditors will likely create a reduced payment plan or allow you to stop payments for a few months. However, if you don't notify your creditors and your payments stop suddenly, they are more apt to report you to the credit bureaus.

Another important tip is to request your credit report each year or every six months. There are three main credit bureaus that report your credit scores to banks and lenders. They are Trans Union, Experian, and Equifax. Depending on your residence state, you may receive a free credit report each year. Check your credit report for any discrepancies and for any new loans or credit cards opened up in the last few months. If you are a victim of identity theft or fraud, you will usually notice immediately and can contact the bureaus to correct the situation. If you are trying to avoid bad credit, take a look at the above suggestions.

Tips On Avoiding Bad Credit

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Remove Bad Credit History - How to Clean Up Your Credit Report and Raise Your FICO Score

Having and maintaining excellent credit in todays economic crisis is important. With negative information on your credit profile pulling your FICO scores down you will find it hard to secure financing, get low interest rate and even buy certain forms of insurance. The god news and little known secret is that removing bad credit history from your credit report is not that hard, you just need the right plan.

The first thing you have to do is get a copy of a tri-merge report that shows what the three major bureaus are reporting about you. Those three companies are Equifax, Trans Union and Experian. You can buy a tri-merge report online very easily.

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Next look your report over for errors and negative accounts that will pull your FICO scores down fast. These include late payments, collection or judgments and charged off accounts. These are the three most common causes of bad credit and low scores.

Once you identify these problems you need to start the process of disputing those accounts. You can do this online at the bureaus websites or by sending a dispute letter in the mail. The letter is the recommended way because it leaves a paper trial.

When they receive your letters the bureaus will ask the issuing lender to prove the negative information true. If they fail to do so within 30 days then the item will be removed from your report. Make sure you do it slowly one or two accounts at a time or the reporting agencies will get wise to your plans and put you on a frivolous dispute list and ignore your requests.

Remove Bad Credit History - How to Clean Up Your Credit Report and Raise Your FICO Score

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Where Do Credit Reports Come From?

Having a credit report is really protecting you and also proving yourself to be a trustworthy person. First, we need to know, where do credit reports come from? There are credit reporting agencies, otherwise known as CRAs, who have the task of tracking, gathering, and presenting your credit history to someone who requests it. There are three major companies here in the United States of America. They are:

Experian (formerly known as TRW)
Equifax Inc; and
TransUnion

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These three companies hold over 500 million credit holders' records worldwide.

As soon as you started using credit as a college student perhaps, a file was created in your name within one of the CRAs' massive databases, storing and continually collecting your credit use. They also started generating a credit "ranking" or "score" for you, of which you have probably heard, which is based on every other American's use of credit. You can either have an excellent, average to good, poor, or no credit standing. The closer your report is to excellent, the better advantage you have. So if you have ever applied for a mortgage, car loan, or another large loan, you can almost be certain that one of those three large companies was contacted and then provided this information.

Why is this credit report information even important to these companies? The more you feel you can trust someone, the greater the chance will be that you will loan him or her money e. If you have a brother who just never seems to be able to pay you back, chances are you will tell him you will not be able to lend him money. The opposite is true if you have a very trustworthy friend who always is able to pay you back on time. Banks and financial institutions do not personally know you, or how good you are at paying back your debts, so they must enlist the help of a CRA to let them know if you are dependable and responsible with your credit.

You may also want to check out your credit report from time to time, just to be sure that there are no errors or little unknown activities in it. Companies make mistakes, especially when dealing with 500 million accounts. If you do find an error, write a courteous letter to the company disputing the information contained in the report. The information may also be incorrect due to fraudulent activity, for which you should not be accountable.

Where Do Credit Reports Come From?

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How an Equifax/FCRA Credit Report Can Help Your Financial Future

If you were recently engaged in the process of getting a loan or a mortgage, you must have heard about terms like Equifax.com/FCRA, credit worthiness etc. If you are not already aware of what these terms mean, this article will be helpful for you to understand them in better detail.

FCRA is a federal law that is an abbreviation for Fair Credit Reporting Act. It was established by the federal government to collect financial information about the public in the form of a credit score. These credit ratings are awarded on a scale that runs from 280 to 850, with 280 being the worst possible rating.

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What do these credit scores mean?

The purpose of these credit scores is to establish your credit worthiness and financial risk to lenders, insurers and even employers. In today's economy, people have a diverse history when it comes to their credit worthiness. Some would have faced tough times and would have filed for bankruptcy while some would have been late on a few payments. There would have also been a lot of people who might have worked really hard to stay ahead of their bills.

When various people like this approach the bank for a loan, the bank will decide whether to give out a loan or not based on the credit worthiness of the person. It is just not approval or denial of a bank loan that is decided by one's credit worthiness.

In some cases, a bank might approve a loan but at a high interest rate for a person with lower credit worthiness than a person with good credit ratings.

You might wonder about how the banks decide on terms such as approval, denial or interest rates. This is where the Equifax.com/FCRA credit report will come into play. Equifax is an institution that will generate a report that will give you your credit score. As said earlier, it will range somewhere in between 280 to 850. The average across the United States is somewhere around the 700 level.

How you can go about getting an Equifax.com/FCRA credit report?

This is a fairly simple process and you can get your credit ratings by simply applying online. All you will need is your own identity information such as name and address. Once you fill out the information, Equifax will be able to calculate your credit ratings.

If your credit ratings are good, you can furnish this document at a bank to get the best possible terms on a loan that you might be trying to get. If your credit score is bad, you can try to fix the issues that might be causing you to have a low credit score.

In some cases, you will also be able to see that there will be some information on your credit report that you are not familiar with at all. If you have ever been victimized by identity theft, there is a good chance that you will see it on your Equifax.com/FCRA credit report in the form of fraudulent transactions or unfamiliar loans. You can then use the report to dispute the charges to get your credit score recalculated. It is advised that every American gets their credit score checked at least once a year to keep abreast of their financial standing.

How an Equifax/FCRA Credit Report Can Help Your Financial Future

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How can I check my credit score for free?

About 10 million Americans to check their credit each year, and for good reason. Be familiar with your credit score is one of the most important things you can do to maintain a healthy financial life. There are tons of different factors that go to calculate the score, can sometimes also errors that are not your fault. Keeping a watchful eye on credit, you can see any unusual activity and quickly find out what is happening. So do the millions whohave already discovered their location and request a free credit report today!

Your credit score is a three-digit number between 300 and 850, based on previous activities and current financial years, which are stored in your credit report. A value above 700 are considered good credit, and should be your goal, if not already more than 700. Your credit report keeps track of all your bills, credit card balances, the amount of debt, and many other factors that are usedWhen calculating your credit rating. The most important of these factors is whether to make payments on time, so be sure to keep you on the bill.

Equifax

Many people do not know, but are actually three different credit scores, obtained from the three credit reporting companies. TransUnion, Experian and Equifax are the three major rating agencies in the United States, and calculates the score is a bit 'different. TransUnion uses the FICO score,Experian PLUS Score is using their system, and the score Equifax provides power points. It 'important service that all three credit scores, as this gives a complete overview of using the credit.

By knowing where the score is, you can better understand what kind of loan you can get and the interest it should receive. You can also see which areas of your business finances, which is the first step to improving your credit card.With a high score, you reduce your interest rate can save you thousands of dollars a year.

Make it a priority to obtain a copy of your credit score and credit report, can be very useful for you.

How can I check my credit score for free?

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Get your credit score from Equifax

Everyone should check their credit report at least once a year. Identity theft, errors committed by the credit reporting agencies, creditors and the mistakes that have some of the reasons that will convince you, you should check your credit report. Three major credit bureaus report credit scores are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. The credit report from all three credit agencies and may be checked free of charge once a year during the annual credit report.

However, after refusingget a loan to get the consumer the right to their credit report from one of the three agencies. The consumer, a credit report from Equifax request by clicking on their website (equifax.com) and click on a tab at the top right "Free Report, Security Freeze, Dispute and Fraud Protection." After the card "to get your credit report" can be selected. The fields for personal information in order to be filled after completing the last leg to get your creditto report. In addition, after completing the fields for the information you have is a way to get the full report of credit for seven dollars, or simply free report.

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There are also other features, the site offers for purchase Equifax. As the service on which your credit history and tells you when something unusual happens. However, these usually are not necessary, but must be used only in special circumstances. Knowing the credit can be veryImpact on the interest rate to pay for mortgages, car loans, car insurance, etc. could be worth thousands of dollars a year. The best advice is to stay active and carefully as your credit score is. Ensure that no fraud perpetrated on you for stealing my credit card.

Get your credit score from Equifax

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