By HILARY JOHNSON
Cash Poor? Clean Your Credit To Make Your Cash Woes Go Away!
Inquiries On Your Credit Report
As mentioned earlier, there is the need to monitor the number of inquiries you have on your credit report. Inquiries are placed on your report whenever someone has requested a copy of your credit report.
For example, if you apply for a credit card, the lender will request a company of your credit score and report from the credit bureau to find out how much of a risk you are. When they do this, after receiving information from you requesting this account, the inquiry is on the credit report.
Too many inquires can downgrade your credit report. For this reason, be selected in apply for any credit or allowing any company to pull a credit report on you. This includes insurance companies and businesses who want you to work for them.
If you spot inquiries you have not approved, you can have them removed from your credit report. It is essential to be sure you have not approved this inquiry, though. To do so, you will need to use the information provided to your advantage.
The inquiry will include the name of the company who pulled the report and their contact information. Call them directly and request information about why they have requested a copy of your credit report. They will tell you.
Many times, you will not recognize the actual lender’s name on the credit report, but you will be able to remember the transaction after you have called them and asked a question.
If, after speaking with the company, you still do not have any memory of this information, the best course of action is to report the inquiry to the credit bureau. They will then force the company to show proof that you requested the inquiry and remove it if it is not possible to verify the information.
Credit inquiries will stay on your credit report for up to two years. Be sure to keep an eye on them over time and to report any mistakes you may have.
Identity Mistakes
While we mentioned identity theft, there may be other identity problems on your credit report that are not nearly as serious. Here, someone has not actually stolen your identity, but rather the spelled your name wrong, given you someone else’s address or otherwise made mistakes with your credit reporting.
Many times, these errors do not matter. If there is a missing letter in your name, it is likely that the mistake has not affected your credit score in any way. Still, you may wish to clean up your credit report and remove this information from it.
In the following blog, we talk about reporting processes for removing credit related information. The same process is not followed for identity mistakes such as your name, your employer information, your address or other identifiable information.
Instead, you will need to call the credit bureau directly to report these problems. Some of this information is unable to be removed from your credit report and the agency will let you know that. Other mistakes can receive attention right away.
It may be important to you to update your employer information. This is done over the phone once there is proof of your identity. You may also want to update your address if it is not correct. You may not be able to remove an address you once lived at, though. If you have never lived at the address, definitely report this to the agency.
TAKE IT STEP BY STEP
Your credit report is the only piece of information that most lenders receive about you when you apply for a loan through them. It is essential to consider what is on your report and what should not be there. Go through the credit report one line at a time. It is often helpful to print it out and use the paper version to track what you have reported.
The first time you pull your credit report, you are sure to find more than a few mistakes. It may take you some time to locate them all and to get them repaired. Over time, fewer will be reported as you are more conscious of who you are giving your credit information to.
It is essential to go through your report at the very least one time per year to locate any potential problems with it. You should report problems as they happen!