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IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING
CONSUMER REPORTING AGENCIES
By Barry Menser
Welcome to the World of Financial Education
and Consumer Reporting Resources.
This initial introduction will cover the world
of consumer credit and reporting of
consumer credit. Some of the categories and
companies may be familiar to you and some
may be unknown. Later, in other
informational documents we will explore
Business Credit Reporting Agencies but for
now the area of discussion will be Consumer
Reporting Companies. We will start with
those companies that you may have
encountered as you experienced everyday
life.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you as
consumer can request a free credit report
every 12 months and receive a consumer
report from Equifax, Experian and
TransUnion, the three largest providers of
consumer reports. Information provided in
the big three reports contain:
*Your re-payment history submitted by credit
card companies, home and auto lenders,
leasing companies and other creditors.
*How much credit you have been approved
for.
*How much credit you have used.
*Data from debt collectors and buyers of
debt including medical debt (medical debt
inclusion is under review).
*Public record information such as
bankruptcies, short sales, liens and
judgments.
Additional Sources of Consumer Reporting
Companies include:
 Employment screening.
 Tenant screening.
 Check and bank screening.
 Personal property insurance.
 Medical.
 Low-income and subprime.
 Supplementary Reports.
 Utilities.
 Retail.
 Gaming.
Boost Your Credit Score in 2016
By Criag Buchan
I focus on cutting debt, building savings,
and banks behaving badly
Have you resolved to improve your
credit score in 2016? We might dislike
FICO, but the financial system still
largely depends upon those three digits.
If your goal is a higher credit score, here
are five tips to help you get there.
1. Bring, and keep, your open
accounts current. The most important
part of your FICO score is a history of
on-time payments. If an account
becomes 30 days past due, you can lose
a lot of points. It is much more important
to bring and keep open accounts current
than to handle old collection items of
closed accounts.
2. Reduce your credit card
utilization. Utilization is defined as the
percentage of your available credit that
you are using. To calculate your
utilization, divide your statement
balances by your credit limits. If you
have $10,000 of available credit and
have a $1,000 balance, your utilization
rate is 10%. According to data
fro
people with the best credit scores
(above 780) have a utilization rate of
5.6%.
3. Review your credit report from all
three agencies, and dispute incorrect
information. You are entitled to a free
copy of your credit report from all three
credit reporting agencies
and TransUnion)
every year. You can download these
reports for free
fro If you see
any incorrect information, it is your
responsibility to dispute the information.
Fortunately, making a dispute is getting
easier. You can register your disputes