Credit Reporting Agencies
Credit Reporting Agencies Are The Place To Go Whenever a potential extender of credit, a lender, or you if you'd like to see what is there, are looking to check your credit rating, then credit reporting agencies are the places to go. Credit reporting agencies provide all the information needed regarding your credit history with a report that shows how ‘healthy’ your credit and finacial history is. They keep a very detailed record of your financial history; the credit extended to you, you payment history, the timeliness of your payments, the addresses at which you have lived over the years. While there a many 'free' credit report offers out there, these reports are from only one of the three major credit reporting agencies, Transunion, Experian and Equifax. The three credit agencies, while similar, are often different in what they report and the 'free' reports are also fairly hard to read. Wouldn't it be wise to know and see what a lender is going to see? Say you run a 'free' report from one of the agencies, it may show that everything is fine and that you have no problems with your credit. Then you go to buy a house and spend all that time with the Realtor looking at homes and finally, after three months of driving here and there and spending a lot of time, you find your 'dream' home. One of the first things you'll need to do is get a hold of a lender, if you haven't already done so, and apply for a loan. Now when they run your credit the lender finds a number of problems with your credit and the loan they offer you has a much higher rate and much more in terms of costs than you plan. What happened? That one credit agency you check said your credit was fine, and it still is, but the other one or two agencies show your credit to be very different. You see, some merchants that you buy from, or creditors that you deal with, may report to only one or two of the three credit agencies, so the other, through no fault of theirs own, don't really know about you. The information could be made available to you, very easily, just by going online, no more having to write to, or call, the reporting agencies and request it via 'snail mail'. The services that credit agencies and bureaus provide also include giving advice as to how you can keep a good credit score in order to qualify for credit in the future.