Pulling Your Credit Report

A credit report is a historical record of how you have paid your bills. Your credit report is used by credit grantors to make decisions about loans, by landlords to decide whether or not they want to provide you housing, and by employers to decide eligibility for anything from employment to retention.

These rights are stated in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which can be found here.

There are many reasons why you should obtain your credit report. If you applied for credit and were turned down, If you are unemployed and looking for a new job, or to check and make sure that no one is committing identity theft using your name.

The three nationwide credit reporting companies are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. You can request a report online at FreeCreditReport.com. Be prepared to give your personal information to prove that it is you that is making the request for your report. This is simply done to protect your privacy. Some of what may be asked will include your full name with variations like your maiden name or hyphenated married name, your current address, date of birth, social security number, or details about your payment amounts.

If you receive your report and notice errors, ask what you need to do to prove that the information provided is wrong. Do everything that is required of you; send all the papers they ask you to send. When sending this information, do not hesitate to send them to all three credit companies. The mistakes may be in all of their files.

>> Read Our Second Article: Knowing Your Credit Score