How Often Are Credit Reports Updated?

Credit reports can be inaccurate, and not all creditors are timely in reporting changes. If you request a copy of your credit report and then find mistakes, you have the right to dispute any errors. It is important to have any inaccuracies on your credit report corrected so that you can maintain a good credit score. Monthly Most financial institutions and creditors send an updated report to the major credit bureaus every 30 days. However, since a person can have several different lines of credit with due dates at different times throughout...

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What Does Apartment Eviction Mean to Credit?

In the past, apartment evictions could make finding another dwelling difficult if not impossible and you would still owe the amount left on the lease, but in 2011 it can also affect your credit. Instead of reporting rental payment histories to the credit bureaus, landlords can do this much more cheaply by relaying rental payments through a consumer reporting agency. (ref 1) Judgment The national credit bureaus do not report rental histories, because landlords can rarely afford the added expense, regulation and administrative duties that...

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What Happens to My Credit Score When I Get Married?

Getting married changes lives in many ways. For a couple looking to tie the knot, the impact of those two "I do's" on their credit scores needs to be considered. Whether you are marrying "up" to someone with a better credit score or "down" to someone whose financial history is less stellar than yours, it pays to know the ins and outs of credit scoring before making that long walk down the aisle. Significance According to the New York Times,...

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What Is a Credit Score & How Is It Determined?

A credit score is a number assigned to you based on a formula developed by the Fair Isaac Company (FICO), and this number is used by creditors to help determine your creditworthiness. The credit score is based on a complex mathematical formula that involves several factors. A change in each factor can affect how other factors influence your score. However, information in several standard categories is used to calculate the FICO credit score. You can get an estimate of your credit score by plugging your information into a calculator provided...

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What Is Tier One & Tier Two Credit?

A change of 0.3 percent on your loan's interest rate can mean thousands of dollars in extra finance charges. Getting a better rate means moving up in the lender's credit score tier chart. If you want the best rates, you should aim to enter into the creditor's top one or two tiers. Identification Instead of tying interest rates to specific credit scores, most lenders break FICO scores into ranges and give anyone in a particular range the same...

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How to Remove a Sallie Mae Account With a Zero or Transfer Balance

If you have taken out student loans, chances are that you have dealt with Sallie Mae. The company offers financing to those who have private or federal loans. Sallie Mae can and will report your payments, or lack thereof, to the credit bureaus. These reports can affect your credit and are a factor when other companies are deciding if they want to give you credit. If you have transferred or paid off Sallie Mae accounts and need to remove them from...

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Does Car Repossession Have to Go on Your Credit If You Pay & Get the Car Back in Two Days?

You might be able to remove a car repossession from your credit if you quickly pay off the defaulted payments within a few days. However, the lender reporting a repossession probably isn't what causes your score to go down. You likely have several months of missed payments on the car loan at that point, as well as other accounts that have tarnished your credit report. Identification Whether a car repossession goes on your credit if you make a payment on it within two days depends on how fast the creditor sends data to the credit reporting...

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What Does a B-C-D House Credit Scoring Mean?

The B, C or D credit grade is a classification of credit risk that is done on a sliding scale and applied to subprime mortgage borrowers. This classification has been commonly used to categorize borrowers to quote a rate and program for approval. This type of loan is an example of a nonconforming loan because it does not fit the guidelines set by the Federal National Mortgage Association (FNMA) or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. (FHLMC). ...

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Is Checking Your Own Credit Score Good?

Checking your own credit score helps to assure that you have the highest score possible. Credit reports can include inaccurate information that you need to correct. Additionally, checking your credit score may discover identity theft, which can cause significant harm to your credit and your finances. Even if the credit report proves to be completely accurate, review it periodically. This way, you can assess areas where you might improve your finances...

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The Best DIY Credit Repair

Repairing your personal credit is the key to getting financing with banks and creditors. Different factors influence your score and giving your low score a boost calls for making smart credit decisions and fully comprehending the factors that affect your rating. Learn various do-it-yourself techniques to improve your low score. Late Payments Improve the way you pay your bills. Late payments or occasionally missing a payment may seem insignificant. However, lenders and creditors keep records of your payment history and they can report lateness...

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Definition of Credit Rating

A credit rating is a number that describes your credit risk. It is based on information in your credit report at any given time. Credit ratings are calculated primarily by private companies called credit bureaus, or credit agencies. Credit ratings are also called credit scores. Function Lenders use your credit rating to help decide whether to loan you money. It also affects the interest rate offered to you. Considerations Credit ratings are calculated by using a complex mathematical formula that analyzes the information in your credit...

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Monitoring Services With a Free Credit Report

Credit monitoring services provide extra protection to your financial reputation. Generally, all credit monitoring services come with a free credit report and a free credit score, giving the companies behind these services the opportunity to give customers what they want -- and even some things they don't want. Credit Monitoring The concept behind credit monitoring is allowing a company to review your credit report regularly and alert you if anything changes. For example, if you're signed up for credit monitoring, you'll get notifications...

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What If It's Been Over Eight Years and Bad Credit Is Still on Your Report?

Credit scores are important to consumers and play a large role on a consumer's future financial future. Review your credit reports carefully to ensure everything is reported accurately. Bad credit must be reporting according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This includes creditors only reporting bad information for a maximum of seven years. Bad credit on your report more than eight years requires special attention. Credit Report Your credit...

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How to Create a New Credit File Legally

Your credit file is important. The information stored on your file is used by lenders to work out whether you are suitable for a line of credit. A poor credit file can mean getting declined for credit. Not having a credit file makes it difficult to get credit, as lenders have no historical information to help them make an informed decision. If you are new to credit, perhaps a college student, or have recently become a U.S. resident, you need to create...

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How to Repair Your Bad Credit File

Checking your credit score may reveal a low rating, and having a low rating makes it increasingly difficult to get approved for a mortgage or vehicle loan. Bad credit often results from poor budgeting and money habits. However, changing your spending habits and learning the ins and outs of credit scoring helps you improve a bad credit file and get the financing you need. Instructions 1 Make larger payments to help pay off credit cards. Reduce...

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How Do You Get Your Credit Rating Updated As Quickly As Possible?

People who are planning to apply for a loan may want to increase their credit scores quickly before submitting the application to help get a lower interest rate. Depending on your situation, you have a few options for how to get your credit rating updated as quickly as possible. Rapid rescoring can update your score within three days, but it works only for people who are applying for a mortgage and meet certain conditions. If you are not eligible for rapid rescoring, use other techniques to update your credit rating within a month. Instructions...

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Can an Authorized Credit Inquiry Be Removed?

Credit inquiries usually do the least amount of damage to your credit rating, but more than six of them make you a high risk to lenders, so you want them off of your credit report. However, if you authorize a credit inquiry, it stays on your credit report for two years. You can remove an authorized credit inquiry, but this is the exception and not the rule. Identification You can remove an authorized credit inquiry by disputing the item with the credit-reporting bureaus. The bureaus must investigate the accuracy and verify the claim within...

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Does It Affect Your Credit Score to Use a Debt Counselor?

Although people who go to a credit counselor often have bad credit, going through credit counseling does not affect your credit rating, and may help you improve your credit. The key to making credit counseling benefit your financial situation is to begin as early as possible. People often get nothing out of counseling because their situations are beyond repair. Identification Credit counseling affected consumer credit scores until the late 1980s, but as of 2011, the FICO scoring system does not factor credit counseling into a credit rating,...

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Can You Get an Auto Loan With New Credit?

Auto loans are useful because most cars cost thousands of dollars and consumers tend to spread out the expense with several years of payments. You can get a car loan more easily with an established credit history than with new credit because banks and finance companies like to see an established pattern of how promptly you pay your obligations. Definition You have "new credit" when your accounts are less than a year or two old. An established credit history consists of credit cards and loans that date back several years and different account...

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What Is a Hard Hit in Your Credit Score?

Your FICO credit score is a number from 300 to 850. Higher credit scores can qualify you for great rates on loans and credit cards. To maintain the best score, it's prudent to understand what a hard inquiry is and how it impacts your FICO credit score. Identification When you apply for credit, the lender will view your credit report. That places an inquiry on your credit report. This inquiry is considered a hard inquiry since it was done as a result of your applying for credit. Each time you apply for credit, a hard inquiry is placed on...

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How to Clear a Bad Credit Rating

A bad credit rating makes it difficult, sometime impossible, to get a line of credit. Every lender checks your credit rating before deciding whether to approve your credit application. The more often you apply for credit and get declined, the more your credit rating declines. If this is happening to you, it's essential to act to clear your bad credit rating. Instructions 1 Start to clear a bad credit rating by getting your credit reports...

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How Does Not Using a Credit Card Affect Your Credit Score?

The way you manage your credit card accounts has a large impact on your credit score. It's not just the payments to your account that affect your credit score, though. Your credit score is based on several factors about your accounts. Keep Balances Low By not using your credit cards, you can lower your credit card balances over time. This helps your credit score by raising the available balance. The percentages of your credit balances in...

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Does My Credit Score Decrease if I Close an Account?

The Fair Isaac Corporation -- the company responsible for formulating and assigning FICO credit scores -- does not release its scoring blueprint. It does, however, provide consumers with information regarding the types of financial actions that can raise or lower a credit score. Closing a credit account, for example, does not improve a credit score, and can actually lower it. Credit Ratios If you have a high amount of revolving credit on...

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Adverse Credit Information

Adverse credit information is a major component of your credit rating, known as a FICO score. Different adverse reports remain on an individual's credit report for varying lengths of time; some are more damaging than others. Paying off debts may improve a credit report; however, certain negative information remains on a credit report even after debt has been paid. Late Payments Financial companies calculate payment histories on 30-, 60-, 90- or 180-day schedule. A payment is considered late if it is made more than 30 days after the original...

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What Does "Satisfied Judgment" Mean on Credit Report?

Seeing "satisfied judgment" on a credit report is a Catch-22: You did the right thing by settling the matter, but it still damages your credit for years to come. Satisfied judgments are not always easy to prove, and sometimes you must file a lawsuit because a court reports the case as unsettled. Wait out the judgment and it will eventually vanish from your credit record. Identification "Satisfied judgment" on a credit report means you paid off a court-ordered settlement. This usually occurs when you have a account, such as a credit card...

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How to Repair My Credit File

Credit bureaus maintain the credit files of every American citizen who has debt. It is impossible for everyone's information to be accurate. If you notice inaccuracies on your credit report, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you the right to dispute those inaccuracies. Errors usually occur when a company does not have adequate information on an individual and reports to the credit bureaus using only a name. Banks and credit card companies...

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How Repo Hurts Your Credit & How to Fix it

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns consumers that a good credit rating is essential to qualify for loans, insurance and even some jobs. A top-notch credit score requires a good payment history on all bills. Sometimes vehicle owners miss payments, which puts them at risk for repossession and major credit rating harm. Definition A repossession is an action in which a bank or other lender seizes a car or other vehicle if a person stops making payments. The FTC explains that loan contracts typically contain a provision that allows seizure...

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What Does BQ1, BX1, and BU1 Mean on a Credit Report?

When you read a credit report, the abbreviations "BQ1," "BX1" and "BU1" next to an account indicate which of the three major credit bureaus reported the information about the account. The bureaus are companies that collect information about consumers' credit histories and then sell that information to lenders and others wanting to check on those consumers' creditworthiness. Bureaus The three major credit bureaus are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Creditors send these companies information about their customers' credit accounts, including...

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When Do Items Fall Off Your Credit Report?

Even if you have a poor credit history with numerous collections accounts and bankruptcies, you will eventually get a clean slate. When negative or positive items leave your credit report depends on the type of item. Some items can stay for a decade or more. Even if an item stays on a credit report, it might not effect you much -- or your FICO score. Identification Positive items fall off your credit report after 10 years. Most negative items, such as collections accounts and missed payments, leave your credit history after seven years....

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What Is Tier 1 Plus in Credit Ratings?

Sometimes, raising your credit score a bit has no effect on your interest rate, because lenders often rely on credit scoring brackets to set rates. Lenders typically establish four or five tiers, but some include an extra one for those with elite scores, called tier plus one. If your credit score falls into this tier, you always get the best rates and terms. Identification What scores fall under "tier one plus" depends on the lender or provider, because creditors themselves decide what rate to give borrowers. Most of the time, tier one...

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Does Increasing Your Credit Limit Affect Your Credit Score?

Increasing the limit on your credit account can positively or negatively impact your credit score. The credit utilization rate affects how an increased credit limit will impact the health of your credit score. Increase in Credit Limit: Positive Impact An increase in credit limit can raise a credit score if the debt-to-credit ratio, or credit utilization rate, remains under 30 percent. If a debt ratio is currently above 30 percent, increasing...

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Do Private Notes Affect a Credit Score?

Your FICO credit score is one tool used by lenders to determine your creditworthiness. Your FICO score is a ranking based on information contained in your credit report. Your credit report contains information transmitted to the three major credit reporting bureaus -- Experion, TransUnion and Equifax. A private note, such as a loan from an individual rather than from a financial institution, may not affect your credit score at all. Information Used There are five categories of data used to calculate your credit score. Each category carries...

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Is My Spouse's Debt on My Credit Report?

Your credit report contains your financial history, such as credit you have received and whether you've paid your loans and credit cards on time. When you get married, your financial situation may change depending on your spouse's prior financial activities, but your credit report and credit score will not be affected -- at least in the short term. Separate Accounts Remain Separate When you get married, your credit report does not automatically merge with your spouse's account. As a result, your credit score will not be negatively or positively...

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Car Insurance Credit Problems

The vast majority of car insurance underwriters consider your credit history when approving you for an insurance plan and your premium, according to GMAC Insurance. Car insurers believe that your credit score reflects how risky you are as a person. Some lobbyists, however, claim that using credit checks in the insurance industry is a form of discrimination. Effects Car insurance companies usually give more weight to your credit score than...

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What Will a Credit Card Settlement Look Like on My Credit Report?

A credit card settlement occurs when your credit card company allows you to pay less than you actually owe to satisfy your outstanding credit card balance. When you settle a debt, that fact will be noted on your credit report. The Facts A debt that is settled rather than paid in full will update as "settled" on your credit report. Settled accounts look bad to lenders who pull your credit because they indicate that you may be unable to meet...

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