You might have heard the expression 'three bureau credit report' but have you ever wondered just what it is and why it is important?
Inside the US the three major credit agent firms are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Each of these non-public firms keeps a credit file on you containing private info (such as your name, address and details of your work); details of your payment history on credit card accounts, mortgages, auto loans and other loan agreements; details of any public records concerning your money affairs (such as notices of bankruptcy and court judgments) and details of any inquires made to the company by creditors concerning your financial standing.
As well as the credit file maintained on you, each company also uses its own formula to calculate a credit history for you which is designed to give potential banks an indicator of your credit worthiness and therefore of the chance that they might be taking if they were to grant you a loan or extend credit to you.
It is important to understand that these three firms all operate independently of each other and so the information held by each, and the credit history figured out by each, may well differ. Generally, most major banks,eg banks and credit card corporations, furnish information to all three corporations but many smaller banks, for example local malls which issue their own store cards, may only provide info to one of the three firms.
You have entitlement to request a copy of your credit history from each of these corporations every year free and more often if you wish for a charge. However , to make life a little easier it's also possible to get a three bureau credit report which enables you to view the contents of all three credit reports in a single document.
Hence why is this important?
The contents of your credit history files will define whether or not you're able to get credit in the future maybe to get a house, a new automobile or help to pay for a child's varsity education. What could be worse than trying for a loan to purchase your new ideal home only to find that you are turned down because of your credit history?
Creating and managing a good credit history should be a vital part of your overall money planning through life and this implies making certain that you have got the best possible credit history on file with every one of the three credit bureau firms.
Your start line should then be to get a three bureau credit report and check that the information currently recorded is correct . Firms do screw up and it's not unknown for folks with good finance standing to have a poor credit score because of blunders on their credit score files. You must therefore check the report fastidiously and take steps to correct any inaccuracies to be certain that your credit files are accurate, therefore avoiding the possible need for debt assistance.
Having established that your credit history is correct, or taken steps to fix any errors, you should then work to achieve the best possible credit history and, most significantly, keep an eye fixed on your credit score be requesting copies of your three bureau credit report at regular intervals.
