Your credit report contains sensitive data such as your employment and salary history, Social Security number, birth date and current and former employers. It even shows unlisted phone numbers and certain legal actions taken against you, according to Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. This information could be dangerous in the wrong hands, so you should be aware of who has the right to see it and how to limit access.
General Access
Your credit report can be viewed by many companies, agencies and people with whom you do business. It is provided to creditors, insurance firms, landlords, child support enforcement agencies and other government agencies, according to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. It can also be viewed by agencies with which you have applied for benefits or a license.
Your current and potential employers may obtain your credit report with your permission, and it can be accessed by companies you've hired to monitor your credit. The credit bureaus can also sell limited information from your reports to companies that pre-screen consumers for credit and insurance offers.
Personal Access
The Fair Credit Reporting Act, a federal law, gives you free annual access to your credit reports. You can request one copy every 12 months from TransUnion, Experian and Equifax. You must request them through the online form or telephone number on AnnualCreditReport.com, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Other websites are privately run and require you to sign up for memberships or services to view your reports.
Considerations
Credit report views fall into two categories: hard or soft inquiries. Soft inquiries do not hurt your credit score, but excessive hard inquiries can bring it down, according to the Truthful Lending mortgage website.
A hard inquiry means someone has viewed your credit report to consider you for a loan or account. It shows your intent to borrow money.
A soft inquiry is a checkup by a current lender, a pre-screening by a company preparing solicitations, or your own annual credit review.
Effects
Hard credit inquiries can reduce your credit score because they indicate you want to get a mortgage, a credit card, a new car or some other type of loan. FICO states that one hard inquiry will reduce your score by five points or less, but several applications within a short period will pull it down more. Six or more hard inquiries make you statistically more likely to file for bankruptcy, according to FICO. This is especially true if your overall credit history is short. Soft inquiries are neutral and have no effect on your score.
Prevention
You can prevent some companies from viewing your credit score by opting out of pre-screened solicitations. The FTC advises using OptOutPrescreen (see Resources section), a website run by the credit bureaus to let consumers stop receiving pre-screened credit and insurance offers. Inquiries will stop within 60 days of signing up at the website or completing the process over the phone, according to the FTC.
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