I'm not a fan of credit bureaus!
The State of Minnesota requires all real estate agents to keep up their license by taking 15 CE hours each year (June - June) I just to a fantastic, eye-opening class called "Repairing Cracked or Broken Credit" by Todd Rooker. Wow! This class was like a Michael Moore + 60 Minutes expose on how credit card companies and the 3 credit reporting agencies are raking the average American over the fine print coals. Did you know that if you have a late payment on your Visa that your other credit card can jack your rate up? That's in most of the fine print that most people (me included) never read. You wonder why the average American has over $10,000 in credit card debt!
HERE'S A GREAT CREDIT REPORT TIP: Set a reminder to get your FREE credit report from www.AnnualCreditReport.com This is the official site (not www.FREECreditReport.com) By law you have the right to get a free credit report from each of the three major credit scoring bureaus every twelve months. Set a reminder to obtain your Experian report each January, Equifax in May and Transunion in October. This will help you keep a close eye on identity theft and monitoring any credit inaccuracies.
Fixing and improving your credit score is going to be a huge issue with the amount of foreclosures, short sales and late payments from ARMs affecting the economy. Mr. Todd Rooker explained that in his research, one late payment on a mortgage can drop your credit score by 100 points! This could affect the following; mortage rate, credit cards, auto loans, insurance premiums and surpisingly your employment! Todd shard the story of one person that was passed over for an executive postion due to his poor credit! Aside from moving up the corporate ladder, we ran through a Joe Sixpack scenario that was over $800 a MONTH difference for a modest, blue collar, double income family. Here's the math; $800 a month times 12 months = $9600. Over ten years that is nearly $100,000!
Forget financial planning, show me how to maintain a good credit score! The class had a ton of great consumer information and tips that I need to validate and distill into a blog format. More great anti-credit bureau conspiracy theory to follow!
Here's some info directly from the site www.AnnualCreditReport.com ...
What is a credit score?
A credit score is a complex mathematical model that evaluates many types of information in a credit file. A credit score is used by a lender to help determine whether a person qualifies for a particular credit card, loan, or service. Most credit scores estimate the risk a company incurs by lending a person money or providing them with a service –– specifically, the likelihood that the person will make payments on time in the next two to three years. Generally, the higher the score, the less risk the person represents.
How can I get my credit score?
You can purchase a credit score by contacting one of the nationwide consumer credit reporting companies.
Equifax - www.equifax.com
Experian - www.experian.com
TransUnion - www.transunion.com