By: Arthur Cooper
Submitted: 2010-07-16 09:08:01 | Word Count: 664
It’s important that you know that your credit report is a different thing than your credit score. While your credit report is something you can get on your own (and repair –instructions below), your FICO credit score is something that is compiled from a propriety set of criteria and will cost you a nominal fee to receive. Your credit report is comprised simply of your credit card records, loan information, and your repayment history and the limits of cards or balances remaining on loans. It paints a picture of your past experiences with money and shows whether or not you might be a good risk for a new loan.
First of all, get your credit reports. It’s simply a matter of giving information (Social Security Number, current and previous addresses, current contact information) on a form at annualcreditreport.com, then disputing any erroneous charges on your credit report with a Dispute Letter such as that supplied by Credit Elves. It is free to dispute credit discrepancies, but takes a little bit of perseverance and digging into your own history. It is the law that any credit disputes that are judged in your favor be corrected on your credit report and another free copy of your credit report be issued to you for you to verify its accuracy. This will happen with each and every dispute within 30 days by law, unless the creditor or credit reporting agency decides that your disputes are frivolous, in which case you will still be notified in writing. It is seemingly daunting, to get into your own credit history and stare down a few demons, but if you can dispute charges successfully, or get owed amounts to a level that you can pay off and have your accounts marked “Paid in Full,” you can get your credit score raised to a level that is respectable.
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Your FICO credit score can be estimated for free from MyFico, using a simple estimating tool. You simply answer a few questions regarding your credit history and it will give you a range within which your actual score will fall. Otherwise, for a small fee, you can receive the actual FICO score from any number of sites, including the big three reporting agencies, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. You can also access a free trial at the site, but be sure to cancel the service before they start tacking on the annual or monthly fee that you have to agree to before you get your score. You’ll be asked for your date of birth, Social Security Number, current address, and previous addresses and they’ll pull not only your credit report information, but arrest and conviction records, foreclosure information, bankruptcy filings, current income, any tax liens on record and other information that they use in a model proprietary to them to calculate one number, your credit score. It is an easy way to take measure of your credit-worthiness and overall character by a lender, creditor or possible employer. For good or ill, they encapsulate a lifetime’s worth of credit history and personal history into one number upon which to judge you.
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Click here to read the rest of Fico Credit Score. If you enjoyed this article, you also might like our other stories about Credit Dispute Letters.
