A credit report contains financial information about any secured and unsecured debts you have made payments on over the last seven to 10 years. Financial institutions use credit reports as a basis for determining whether to lend you money, how much to lend you and at what interest rate.
The Facts
The information contained in your credit report is provided to the three major credit bureaus by your creditors. The credit bureaus then match the information provided by creditors with the information already on file from other creditors when reporting account information. Public government records are also a source of the information on your credit report.
Time Frame
Most derogatory information, such as collections and charge-offs, will appear in your credit report for seven years. A credit card account or line of credit that you keep open and make regular payments on will appear on your credit report until 10 years after the account is closed.
Benefits
Accurate data reporting by the credit reporting agencies allows lenders to offer low interest rates to individuals who have demonstrated positive payment histories.
Inaccuracies
The Fair Credit Reporting Act grants consumers the right to dispute any information contained within their credit file that they suspect to be inaccurate. Each credit bureau then has 30 days in which to fully investigate the claim.
Considerations
A consumer can file a lawsuit against any company that is reporting inaccurate information to credit bureaus, but only a state attorney general can initiate a lawsuit against a credit bureau for inaccurate reporting.
0 comments:
Post a Comment