Credit Repair

In most countries , the credit history or credit report is considered to be a reliable source of information about an individual's financial profile as well as a record of an individual's or company's past monetary transactions in terms of borrowing and repaying, including information about late payments, fines and bankruptcy. The term 'credit reputation' is generally deemed to be synonymous with credit history or credit score.

The process by which the system works is mentioned in brief below. When a customer requests for a credit from a bank, credit card company or store, information pertaining to their application is forwarded to a credit bureau, along with constant updates on the status of their credit accounts, addresses or any other relevant pieces of information that might have changed significantly since the last time they would have applied for any credit.

Information gathered in this manner over time and collated by certain agencies to create a financial profile of an individual, is used by lenders such as banks, credit card companies or other financial institutions in order to determine an individual's or entity's credit worthiness; in other words, determining an individual's or entity's means and willingness to repay if found to be in a state of indebtedness. This helps determine whether or not it would be an investment a financial institution would be making in extending credit to the individual in question, and on what terms. With the implementation of risk-based pricing on almost all lending activities in the financial services industry, this report has become all the more important, since it usually is the sole element used to choose the APR or annual percentage rate.

Fact remains that no one can legally remove accurate and timely negative information from a credit report. In order to ensure all fairness, the law allows you to request for an investigation of information in your file that you may dispute as being inaccurate or incomplete and this is a free service. Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally and free of cost can also be done by you yourself at little or no cost. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA:

o You are entitled to a free credit report if a company takes adverse action against you, like denying your application for credit, insurance, or employment, and you request for your credit report within 60 days of receiving the notice of the action. This notice will give you the details such as the name, address and phone number of the consumer reporting company in question. You are also entitled to one free report a year in case you are unemployed and plan to look for a job within 60 days; in case you are on welfare; or else if your report is inaccurate because of fraud, including identity theft.

o Each of the nationwide consumer reporting companies namely, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - is required to provide you with a free copy of your credit report, on your request, once in every 12 month time span.

These three companies have made provisions for you to order your free annual report by setting up a central website, a toll-free telephone number, as well as a mailing address through which they can be contacted. To place an order, take up any of the following simple procedures:

" Visit the website: www.annualcreditreport.com

" Call 1-877-322-8228

" Use the postal service - complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form which can be downloaded and printed from the website ftc.gov/credit and mail it to:

Annual Credit Report Request Service,
P.O. Box 105281,
Atlanta,
GA 30348-5281.

In order to discourage consumers from contacting the three nationwide consumer reporting companies individually, they have come up with the facility of providing free annual credit reports only through www.annualcreditreport.com, 1-877-322-8228, and Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You may also choose to order your reports from each of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies at the same time, or else, you can order your report from each of the companies one at a time.

For another copy of your report within a 12-month period that you would like issued apart from the free copy, a consumer reporting company may charge you up to $9.50.

o You may however dispute mistakes or outdated items for free. As per the Fair Credit Reporting Act or FCRA, both the consumer reporting company as well as the information provider that is, the person, company, or organization that provides information about you to a consumer reporting company, are responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information that may arise in your credit report. In order to take full advantage of all your rights under this law, you may contact the consumer reporting company and the information provider.