Your Credit Score Secrets

There are many people out there who are unaware of what their credit score is or how much it already could be affecting their wallet or could in the future if habits are not changed. Lenders have been using your credit report score in determining whether or not to grant you a loan and to calculate your interest rate for some time now. The loan officer knows what a powerful tool for predicting future behavior the credit score can be and has proved over and over again to be.

Credit scores measure risk through mathematical calculations, using statistical research to view each consumer. FICO, which is the most widely used credit-score formula was created by Fair Isaac. FICO scores are now often requested for such simple applications in categories such as cell phone providers, utilitility companies, landlords and even prospective employers. It seems that your credit score can affect a lot more than just getting that low interest rate on that all important home or auto loan.

Managing your credit score and knowing your score and what is included on the report should be a priority for anyone. First you need to educate yourself on how your credit score is determined and calculated by these reporting companies.

In order to calculate the score of just one individual, FICO credit system uses 22 pieces of data, which they collect from each of the three major credit bureaus and use in their analysis. The system seems to break down into separate categories and then put together a composite of all category scoring into a final outcome. Payment history, types of credit used, current debt, length of your credit history and new credit are the determining factors in credit scoring.

Even though people may think so, income is not a factor in a credit score and does not reflect upon the final score. Individual or variable factors are not taken account in a credit score so that the final outcome is more mathematical and analytical in nature, not using personal feelings or considering circumstance. Credit scores are simply predictors for future behavior based on past experience and behaviors.

The lowest possible credit score to have is 300 with the highest rating an 850. The higher your score is, the lower the possible risk to a creditor, and the better your interest rates are going to be. Having a score that is 800 or above is hard to obtain, with only an average of between 13-18% of the population having an 800 or higher credit rating. The average median credit score is more on average between 700 and 750.

Your FICO score is different from your credit reports. If you want to take a look at your credit reports, this is ALWAYS the place to start when it comes to credit repair. In 2003, The Fair and Accurate Credit Transaction Act entitles you to a free credit report from each of the three major credit bureaus once a year. Make sure to request yours to keep up to date on what is changing on your report.

Staggering when you request the reports also helps you to keep up to date on any changes and staggering the reports will also help you to spot bad information sooner. Many places can help you to obtain your credit report. A comprehensive list is included below to help you to getting your hands on your credit report.

The most detailed information to be found online when it comes to credit scoring seems to be from the creators themselves. You can go to the Credit Education area for the most up to date information regarding your credit report and rights. They offer all three credit bureau’s reports, which is highly recommended.

Because credit reporting is based on time and all three agency do not run like clockwork when it comes to which tasks are at hand. When one bureau reports something and when another bureau dates something could vary greatly. It would be imposbbile for each bureau to keep track of there reports all on the same schedule.

You will find that each bureau has different schedules and ways of reporting which makes it the most advantageous to have all three reports. You want to be able to make sure that all three bureaus show the same things and that one does not report something that the others do not, which is often the case when one bureau receives a collection activity notice and the others don’t.

Your credit history affects your ability to borrow and even creeps up to attack how much money it costs you to borrow once you find yourself actually approved for something. Every creditor, lender or individual interested in someone as a prospective customer has a credit scoring system in place to use with the information you provide when submitting your application. An individual’s credit report is essential to anyone out there seeking credit and is very important to any loan officer.

Many think of credit scoring systems as very vague “Wizard of Oz” type all powerful machines which control your number at a high speed. These credit scores are based on a statistical system however and are as easy to explain as the mystical “wizard”. The systems that were created to calculate your credit score use real world data and enable the lendor or creditor to view the individual objectively.

Some of these include the number and the different types of bank accounts an individual has, outstanding debts, history of bill paying, debt to credit ratios, any collections accounts that have been brought against the individual, bankruptcies and other factors determined more by the individual and his or her financial portfolio.

By comparing the history and background of one individual against the background of thousands of other consumers with financial situations and payrates that are similar, one can better predict the outcome of a loan offer made to this individual. It is easier to predict future habits based on the person’s ability in their past and see whether it is likely that debt will be managed well and repaid in the agreed upon time.

The mathematical system used by credit scoring systems has proven to lenders that it can be a strong predictor of one’s future ability to repay their credit or debt to an individual company. The system created was designed to place more emphasis on history and less emphasis on individual statistics, which are variable.

You can request your credit report through a number of ways but it will not help if you do not have the education and knowledge in order to read it and determine what you can do to raise your own credit score. Make sure to arm yourself with the knowledge through the right book, audio tape or program and you can put your credit report to work for you and be on the path to a better credit score.

You can find Ads everywhere for systems, books and secrets to help fix your credit report score in a hurry with virtually no effort. Many of these programs are featured on TV, in magazines and through Pop up ads online. Some of these marketing ads include claims such as the Tabloids use to promote their unbelievable magazines.

Claims such as, “Your credit score can jump 200 points in only 3 hours” or “Create a completely new credit file and fix your credit in only a day”. The truth is that there is not any credit program that can guarantee results that fast and no quick fix home remedy that will immediately solve all of your problems.

However, with only a little investment of time and effort, you can produce amazing results and raise your own credit score by yourself, without having to pay some credit repair agency tons of money in order to help. Even the Federal Trade Commission has stated right on their website that anything a credit reporting agency can do for you, you can do for yourself. All that is required is making sure to educate yourself properly with the right books and apply some simple techniques to take the time to Do It Right the first time and produce a better credit score.

There are only a few available books that can really help the average consumer to fix their own credit score and these books are well worth the small price. In order to fix your own credit, you need to know not only credit basics, but also the insider tips and techniques that the credit repair agencies use to fix your credit for you. These are easily applied once you are shown how to do it through the right book and using the right letter templates and time-tested methods.

The Credit Secrets Bible is the most highly recognized reading and program in the online search category when I searched for credit help. The publication, first produced in 1994 and with a new edition out by popular demand this year helps people with insider techniques and tips that the credit bureaus don’t want you to know.

Credit report can be easy, can save you thousands of dollars and you can do it yourself and make sure to put yourself on a better road to financial freedom. Find out for yourself how simple it can be and read about more of these insider tips to get you started on your credit score education and a better financial future.

When working with people on credit issues and dealing with the complexities of a credit report score, one notices without question that the debt to credit ratio is important. The debt to credit ratio can have a huge effect on that important home or auto loan or that needed business loan. However when balanced correctly, in accordance with the set standards for good credit from the credit reporting agencies, the debt to credit ratio can provide the much needed improvement for your current credit score.

People are constantly commenting on what a good idea it is to make sure and pay off all of your cards every month in full to make sure to establish good credit and show that one can pay their bills. This is such a misconception and only leads to confusion. Having a revolving balance kept at the right percentage compared to your debt and you are on your way to a better credit report.

Learning about your debt to credit ratio can be one of the important steps to putting yourself in the right frame of mind for credit success. For most Americans the debt to credit ratio is to high and it can be hard to obtain any new offers or loans from banks or financial institutions. For example, you have resolving accounts totaling $10,000 but you currently owe $8,000 which gives you an eighty percent ratio, very high for a buyer of a finance deal to even take a second look at you.

Lenders make the bulk of their money through charging interest, not sending out pretty square cards or annual fees. When looking at any model designed for credit scoring, it likes you to maintain your balances and pay over a length of time and it is driven with your ability to do this, amongst other things.

Being a lender in an institution, if I could see that over a long period of time, you had been able to maintain long-term credit worthiness with a company, it would prompt me to want your business and “interest” as well. As a lender, I know the type of customer that I want to solicit my loans to.

Sub-prime Merchandise Cards can be a great way to balance your debt to credit ratio while still warranting that $350 purchase for that lamp you HAD to have at Macy’s. Sub-Prime Merchandise Cards are simply cards carrying a line of credit to buy merchandise from a specific merchant which in most cases turns out to be the company who originally sold you the card.

Some marketers, perhaps due to their obvious benefits to the consumer, have started to market these cards while misrepresenting and misunderstanding how they work in their advertising campaigns. Sub Prime Merchandise Cards report to one or more of the three credit reporting agencies and can help to even out your percentages quickly when it comes to debt to credit ratio.

By Amy Pedersen 
I know many people who suffer from the belief that only time can fix bad credit and simply wait around hoping for the magic credit “cure” for their report score. Reality wise, time is only one small factor including many which will fix a credit report.

Time does not heal all wounds.You do not have to sit around “hoping” that one day those pesky little “collections accounts” or “negative” items grow legs and remove themselves. The credit laws and acts were written with the consumer in mind and with the best interests of the consumer, not the credit reporting agencies.

So back to time and how to avoid all this pesky waiting and patience when it comes to credit repair and removing negative items from your credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer protection law, states that the only negative information which can remain on your credit report is not what is accurate….but what can be PROVED as accurate.

This is great news for the consumer as the rules and guidelines to follow when it comes to PROVING a negative item is accurate are complicated and hard to follow exactly. The good news from all of this is that if you do have negative items on your report, there may be something you can do about it.

The first step is to obtain your credit report and view any negative items that are on your rating. Next you simply need the knowledge of what steps and guidelines have to be followed in order for the item to be proved as accurate and start the process of checking whether the guidelines have been followed.

Using dispute letters and the right technique, a person can improve their score dramatically with little effort. As long as it is done right and with the proper education on credit, restoring your credit to a better rating has never been easier. It is vital that you have good information on how to dispute these items and get them removed, just as important as it is for the reporting agencies to obtain proof that the reporting is 100% accurate.

You need to know the right techniques in order to improve your score and get items removed or else, you may accomplish nothing. Although all it involves is a little bit of your time, credit dispute needs to be done properly to have the right affect and actually produce the results and get items removed. There are many programs that offer the “quick fix” to removing negatives or simple and “super fast” methods.

The truth is that although it takes only a little bit of time, it still needs to be done correctly and most of these books or pamphlets will just give you “cookie cutter” dispute letters and nothing original to at least get you started. A comprehensive guide of removing negative items from start to finish is really needed to get you from that first step to the very last and not leave you somewhere any between uncertain of which way to turn.

You need a book that will walk you through all the steps and the procedures for getting these items removed. In the end, the process is really no more than a method of communication which exercises your consumer protection rights and gets you back to the credit score you deserve. Either way, it is impressive to learn that it can be simple to do it for yourself and remove these items without having to pay a credit repair agency a ton of your hard earned money to do it for you. Find the right book and you are on your way to removing those negatives and gaining back your financial control.

By Amy Pedersen
A consumer’s application is taken and scored separately by their individual credit history. Credit report final scores are reflective of many differing factors in your financial history and current status. Generally, credit-scoring systems determine whether someone is creditworthy using analytical tools and statistics to produce results and insight into the future dealings with a particular consumer.

Each scoring system is unique and usually based on the particular needs of the financial institution or creditor. Some credit scoring systems award fewer points for example to people who have attained a certain age, such as late thirties or forties, with the thought that the older generation often has a relatively higher amount of debt.

While the law still permits these creditors to award points to age groups, they are required to use properly designed scoring systems when doing so and people who have reached the age of 65 or older must receive the maximum number of points in this situation. Your age can help or hurt your credit score based on your current financial status compared to others of your age group.

Most credit scoring systems consider a lot more factors than just the few named above. Sometimes your score can be based on as many as 15 or 25 different factors that relate to your credit past and present and financial status currently. All of the different factors that are taken into account simply predict your credit worthiness and help the lender to predict your future re-payment habits.Watch which questions you are asked on your credit application to try and determine which factors are used to determine your credit score.

Every credit application varies due to the nature of the scoring system and the type of information needed to make their statistical guesses. Each of the questions you see on the application has a purpose, consider your answers carefully. The creditor or lender is trying to determine what type of financial borrower you will be once they give their money to you.

While there are rules and acts put into force and designed to help the consumer, scoring systems are known for using such unique factors such as the type or year of car you drive to be a factor in determining your credit score. As long as they do not illegally discriminate on race, sex, martial status, national origin, religion, or age, they are allowed to use whatever category of factor they wish to figure your score.

By Amy Pedersen
I know a ton of people who are convinced that if you need to repair your credit, then the Fair Credit Reporting Act is where everything starts. The FCRA is simpy a single Federal Statute designed to help to protect the consumers instead of the Credit Reporting Agencies. Or another good way to put it would be to say it protects them FROM the Credit Reporting Agencies and their “somewhat shady” way of doing business.

While the FCRA is definetely the way to begin good credit repair, it is far from the end of the battle to a better credit score. Technically the FCRA simply regulates how the Credit Reportng Agencies treat consumers. Before this law was enacted in the early 1970’s, these bureaus were unregulated and could do and report just about anything they wanted and to anyone who was interested.

The FCRA can start you off to bettering your credit score if you are educated and know what it can do for you to help you both obtain and fix your report score. The FCRA assures that people can get their credit reports at a reasonable price or for free if denial of credit has been made. This can help you to get your credit report from all there major reporting agencies and starts you on the way to financial education on where you have gone wrong and right in your credit history. Attaining your credit report and knowing your scores is the first step to fixing your credit and the FCRA gives you this right for a much more reasonable cost than in the past.

The FCRA also regulates who has “permissible purpose” to acquire someone else’s credit report. This keeps the average joe or creditor from taking a “peek” at your report without your prior permission or with good enough reason as set forth in the FCRA. One great thing that came about with the FCRA was the delineation period. This means that once something has been placed on your report, the clock starts ticking and it is usually an average of 7 years before it has to be taken off. Bankruptcies can last as long as ten years or any bankruptcy related notations.

This is great news for consumers who have had there problems in the past but are now on the road to better credit and have imporved their financial positions. It pays to keep “doing it right” when it comes to credit and in a number of years, once these negative items are forced to drop off, it can really bring up a person’s score quickly.

It is important to remember when going about any credit report repair that these reports are NOT official government documents as some may be led to believe but they are simply put out by privately owned companies and regulated by the FCRA and Federal Trade Commission. These Credit Reporting Agencies are not officially sanctioned agencies but simply the average corporation just trying to make a buck.

Don’t let the Credit Reporting Bureaus reputation and huge monolith type presence fool you, the FCRA regulates them and is on your side, not theirs. Put the Fair Credit Reporting Act to work for you and fix your credit score now.

Blog Carnivals and all the fun that they can be…who needs the ferris wheel anyways?!

I spent time today browsing through a great new blog carnival dedicated to credit and improving your financial status. There are a ton of articles out there right now that have to do with improving you credit score, making sure your financial portfolio is up to date and just getting people on the financial road to success, all that people have to do is look..

When it comes to credit reports, credit scores and the like, you can never be too careful and it is easy to become unaware of all the changes that are being made. Your credit score and report reflects on you and is extremely important to be educated on. It can cost you a ton of money to be ignorant where your credit is concerned. Your interest rates can skyrocket if you do not stay on top of your score and that can cost you a TON of money.

No one wants to lose money just because of ignorance and why would you when there are so many helpful blogs, websites, books and programs out there to help educate you when it comes to your credit report. Make sure you are one of the ones in the know and you can rest easy knowing your credit score is at it’s top when applying for that all important loan or financial transaction.

The latest blog carnivals have a wealth of information for anyone just wanting to start their education and beginning learning about what it takes to improve their financial position. Blog carnivals also feature some great articles and tips for anyone who already is in the know…but always is looking for more information or needing to improve their financial position all the time.

Blogging can be fun and so can finding all of the information on credit in one spot wihtout spending all day looking through various sites. Blog carnivals that I have found recently offer some great content from a variety of authors and insiders in the credit and financial industry.

Credit repair and improving your credit score is gaining popularity all the time….with new people everyday logging on to improve their credit situation and financial status. It’s time to log onto that computer and start looking for the info you need to raise your credit score today.

Credit Cards, Credit Reports and Credit Scores. These terms are not exactly new to any of us. Neither are the implications when our own cards, reports or scores are not at their “best”. Credit scoring, first created by a group of wacky statisticians at the Fair Isaac Corporation, affects everyone out there at some point or another. All of us consumers at some time, come across an application for product, merchandise, land or property. Our credit score suddenly looms before us at these times as hugely important, even though we may have neglected it for years or simply months. It is amazing how easy it is for a credit score to change in only a small amount of time.

In the late 1950’s, a small group of statiscians in Minnesota, the Fair Isaac Corporation, wanted to have a look at how what a consumer did in the past or “historical variables” correlated with what would happen at a later date or “future behavior”. Those wacky statisticians and what fun filled conversationalists they must be, huh? Bet they’re a laugh a minute at parties.

They weren’t surprised with their results once they were finished. Turns out that these eggheads quickly discovered that the best way to predict the way a consumer would act in the future WAS based on their history of behavior. To predict whether or not a person would become seriously delinquent, it was as easy as looking at how that person had previously handled similar accounts. And of course, without a hint of egotism from those wacky statisticians, the FICO Score was born. Anyone notice any similar initials from the name of the score an perhaps some corporation?

The FICO, which to the average layperson, who typically falls asleep when sitting and trying to listen to the scientific explanation of FICO, seems to be utterly confusing. Ever changing and updating each time that any new information is gathered or entered into it’s database, credit scores can be hard to understand. Scoring systems may even sound ingenious and while this may be true, there are still several problems facing credit scoring, some of which are scientific in nature.

When using statistics for anything, several problems can arise, such as the “r” value or whether something occurred simply out of dumb luck and can be termed an “anomaly” or random act or whether it was the “average” stuff that we are looking for. Finding averages can be pretty hard when it comes to us humans and all of our random wacky acts.

Placing people in “ranges” when it comes to scores, such as the consumers who score 650-700 on their credit report, can be detrimental to some in the group. Consumers in this group who display different financial habits than the average group member can be hurt by the bad financial decisions of their group, or in turn, sometimes for the people in the same group who display bad habits, their score can still end up higher than it should because of the good habits of the rest of it’s group.

What I guess I am trying to get at is that it seems that the FICO scoring system, while good at predicting statistical trends for large groups of people, falls short when it comes to the individual credit applicant. It seems that when nothing about a persons individual situation is considered, the impersonal and “fast and easy” automation can really affect some consumers, both positively and negatively. I would personally hate to be one of those people trapped in the 650-700 range and automatically judged by the worst behavior of the entire groups bad apple.

My grandmother always use to say, every family has a bad apple in it. I guess when you lump together a group of so many individuals and expect to find an “average” behavior, we are all just humans and choose to do some wacky things and display behavior simply uncharacteristic to us and yet remain still judged in the same category. How does the behavior of people in your credit group affect you and what a wacky bunch of scientists who could have made it easier by just going out and getting laid, instead of dreaming up this system that haunts credit applicants everywhere.

Your credit report is available to you right now, you just have to reach out and grab it. The only thing that seems to me to hold people back is that they simply don’t know that the report is there for the taking, for free, right now. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a Federal law which requires each of the Big 3 Major Credit Reporting Agencies to provide each and every American citizen with a free copy of your credit report, at your request. This law does not require you to have any reason other than curiosity to take a look at your report once every 12 months.

What keeps people from actually taking advantage of this terrific federal law? It seems that the only thing keeping them from clicking on the website or calling the phone number or even sending a simple letter in the mail is knowledge. No one seems to realize that these credit reports are available for free at any time, all it takes is a little initiative and filling out a simple form. The Federal Trade Commission or the nation’s consumer protection agency, is assigned the job of enforcing the FCRA and making sure these Consumer Reporting Companies don’t treat us consumers unfairly.

They are in charge of making sure to promote the privacy and accuracy of the information in the files of the Big 3 Credit Reporting Agencies. Your credit repot contains information on where you live, how your bills are paid and even arrest records. The Fair Credit Reporting Act was established to help protect this private information, making sure it does not fall into the wrong hands.

However, it seems that we are allowed to at least view our own information to verify it is accurate finally.The Major Credit Reporting Agencies were required by this law to establish a website, a toll free number and a mailing address with information and links to obtain these free credit reports. To order, you simply need to fill out a simple form and submit it in whichever form you desire. It is not possible to simply contact the consumer reporting companies and request it, you must go through the correct channels to get the report for free.

You may order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time. The law allows you to order one free copy of your report from each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies every 12 months.

There is only one website out there that can actually help you to obtain the free copy of your report. However, many other sites are springing up claiming to offer a “free” credit report, but once you get down to the “fine print” it is easy to see that the “free” report is only good for a short time and in order to get the free report, you must subscribe to the site. It turns out that what these “imposter” sites are really offering you is simply a “trial period” after which you are charged on a monthly basis for these services and to still be able to view your report.

This “free” service suddenly converts to one you have to pay for after a trial period. If you don’t cancel during the trial period, you are agreeing to let the company start charging fees to your credit card. Why do you think they would ask for your credit card number anyway, if they weren’t intending to charge it.

In order to obtain your free credit reports, all three of them, from the site governed by federal law, you are not in any way shape or form required to enter any credit card information. Credit Report Repair can be done simply and by yourself with time and simple tools, you just need to know the right techniques. Obtaining your credit report is the first step to improving your credit score and fix your credit rating. Even the Federal Trade Commission has stated that “anything a credit repair company can do for you legally, you can do for yourself”.

Go out and get your credit report now and you can start improving your score and fixing your credit. Knowing your score and what is on your report can help you to take the first step and begin your credit repair. You simply need the right program to help you to repair your own credit and a good education about credit score repair.

Make sure you find the right one, with great feedback from its happy clients and a long term presence and you can be on your way to fixing your own score yourself using a simple book to get you there. Make sure you log on, pick up the phone or send out the mail and get your free credit report today and start raising your credit score.