How to Get Your Joint Credit Report

Numerous organizations regularly view your credit reports. Credit reporting bureaus record every time your report is accessed. Even buying car insurance creates a note on the report. It's important to know what inquiries have been made into your credit file and whether they should have been made.

Credit reporting bureaus maintain files on an individual basis. Joint lines of credit, such as home loans, are recorded on both credit files and are identical. To get details of your joint credit report, it's only necessary to get one copy.

Instructions

1

Visit AnnualCreditReport.com (see Resources) to get your joint credit report. It's easy and quick, and consumers are entitled to one free report each year. At this site you can get your reports from the three credit reporting bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax.

2

Select which state you live in from the drop-down box. Complete the application form accurately. Review the details before proceeding.

3

Enter the alphanumeric code in the box at the bottom of the page. Click "Continue." Check your details, then click "Submit." Your information will be verified and a password given. Click "Continue."

4

Create a password and password reminder. Follow the instructions. View your credit report, which contains joint credit details, online instantly.

5

The joint account holder should repeat Steps 1 to 4 to get her credit report. You can now compare the two to ensure that the information is the same. To ensure that all joint lines of credit are accurate and have identical information, get all three credit reports for both joint names. Report any errors directly to the credit reporting bureau (see Resources).

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When Filing Bankruptcy, What Falls Off a Credit Report?

The two main types of personal bankruptcy are Chapter 13 and Chapter 7. When you file for Chapter 13, you negotiate with your lenders to come up with a payment plan you can afford. None of your debt is erased -- it's simply restructured. When you file for Chapter 7, some (or all) of your debt is dismissed. In both cases, nothing is erased from your credit report.

Credit Reports

A credit report is a record of your borrowing and payment activity from the past seven years. It tells potential lenders how creditworthy you are. Every time you apply for credit, the lender will run a credit check to decide whether to lend to you and how much interest to charge. If you have a good, long-established credit history, you will find it easy to borrow money. If your credit history is less than perfect, you will find it difficult and expensive to get credit.

What Is in Your Credit Report

Your credit report contains all your credit accounts from the last seven years, both active accounts and ones that you've closes. This includes mortgages, personal loans, car leases, credit cards, store cards and other forms of debt. If you have medical debt that has been passed onto a collection agency, it will be in there, too. If a court ruled against you in a financial matter, it will be on the report. So will any liens on your house. Every credit report has the person's identifying information, including current and previous addresses, Social Security number, date of birth and driver's license number.

What Is Not in Your Credit Report

As the name says, a credit report is a record of credit given to you by lenders. Savings accounts and pension plans do not appear on your credit report. Nor do checking accounts, unless you've maxed out an overdraft and are in debt to the bank. There is no mention of your salary or other forms of income, though creditors will look at that, as well as at your credit report, when deciding whether to lend you money. If you have a criminal record, it won't be on your credit report, either.

Bankruptcy and Credit Reports

When you file for bankruptcy, nothing falls off your credit report. On the contrary, a record of you having filed for bankruptcy is added to your credit history. Chapter 13 bankruptcy will stay on your credit report for seven years, the same as other types of negative information. Chapter 7 is more serious. It will stay on your credit report for 10 years. It's impossible to get it removed before it expires, unless it's on there as a mistake. Bankruptcy will severely hurt your credit score for as long as it's on the report. However, if you stay out of debt, it will matter less as years go by.

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The Problem of Relying on Credit Scores

Credit scores probably played a part in the lending crisis in 2008 because some lenders put too much weight on them, according to Bob Sullivan of MSNBC. Credit scores can be a helpful and efficient tool to weed out bad borrowers, but cannot replace informal judgments of character and other standard lending practices.

Imperfections

The current credit scoring standard as of 2011 -- the Fair Isaac Corp. or FICO model -- cannot incorporate many accounts because the major credit bureaus don't report them. Rent, utilities and cell phones rarely show up on credit reports because of the prohibitive cost to the provider and state privacy laws that restrict the sharing of consumer information. A lender that relies almost entirely on credit scores misses a significant portion of a borrower's credit history.

Overreliance on Scores

The traditional underwriting process requires legwork, such as verifying a person's income and checking character references. Running a quick calculation can entice lenders by slashing approval time rates, especially when loan officers make a commission on each mortgage sold. Also, credit scores only quantify a person's willingness to repay, so relying too much on a score omits another important part of a loan application -- the ability to repay.

Variance in Scores

Most consumers have different scores from each of the three major credit bureaus because of variations in the formulas they use and mistakes in picking up accounts. A consumer, for example, might have a collection account that only one of the bureaus knows about. A collection account is a seriously negative item, so this hypothetical consumer could have a good score at the other two bureaus and a poor one at the bureau that knows about the collection account.

Unethical Practices

Crafty consumers can trick the bureaus into removing an item to artificially boost their creditworthiness. A cottage industry sprung up around fixing credit scores, sometimes with illegal tactics, during the 1990s. Customers, for instance, can dispute any negative item and get lucky if the bureaus cannot verify it in 30 days. Credit repair companies may advise a consumer to use a fake Social Security number to start a new credit history.

Benefit

Reliance on credit scoring during the housing bubble motivated change in the standard credit scoring model. In 2008, for example, the a FICO formula was created to prevent most fraudulent authorized accounts from building a person's credit score. In previous years, credit repair companies often sold authorized accounts to help people start a credit history or rebuild one, despite having no connection to the primary account holder.

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Can Disputing a Credit Report Hurt Your Score?

Credit reports need to be accurate because they can have a significant effect on a person's life. The Federal Trade Commission explains that they can influence getting a job, a home, a car loan and qualifying for affordable insurance. Federal law gives consumers the power to review their Experian, TransUnion and Equifax reports and dispute inaccuracies.

Definition

Credit report disputes are challenges to entries on a consumer's credit report. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is a federal law that gives everyone the right to review the reports annually for free through Annualcreditreport.com and to challenge certain items with each credit bureau. The bureaus must resolve these challenges within a certain amount of time and change their reports to reflect the disputed results.

Purpose

The main purpose of a credit report dispute is to fix mistakes that pull down a person's credit score. For example, someone with a perfect payment history might have delinquent payments showing up. Up to 25 percent of credit reports have harmful errors, according to Bob Sullivan of the MSNBC Red Tape Chronicles. Disputes are also commonly used for credit repair because any mistake is ripe for challenge. Dayana Yochim of the Motley Fool financial advice site explains that even misspellings can be disputed. Consumers who find small errors in negative items can get them removed with a dispute if the original creditor does not respond on the credit bureau investigation. This brings up the credit score.

Process

The FTC advises filing disputes through the mail, even though the three credit bureaus also allow them to be done online. The consumer writes letters to each bureau outlining the disputed items and the grounds for each challenge. The FTC recommends mailing them certified, with return receipts requested. The bureaus must reveal the results of their investigations within 30 days and send new credit report copies to show the mistaken items are gone.

Effects

Credit report disputes themselves do not affect a credit score. A person's score often goes up once the disputes are resolved, if the results cause the erasure of negative items, Yochim explains. Any disputed error that is not validated must be removed, which means it no longer figures into credit score calculation.

Warning

The FCRA lets the credit bureaus ignore disputes that are obviously frivolous. The items will not be removed and the credit score remains the same. A company can validate a bad credit item after it has been removed. It shows up on the credit reports again and brings down the credit score.

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How Long Will a Settlement Affect a FICO?

When a person finds himself with unmanageable debt, he will often choose to negotiate a settlement with his creditors rather than pay the full amount he owes. This will accomplish two things. First, it will keep the debt from growing and protect the creditor from additional collection actions. Secondly, it will stem the damage to his credit rating. However, settlements do generally negatively affect a person's credit report. According to U.S. law, settlements can remain on a report for up to seven years.

Credit Scores

A FICO score -- a measure of an individual's worthiness to receive credit, as measured by credit reporting agencies -- is calculated using information contained within an individual's own credit report. This report will contain records of all the loans that an individual has taken out, as well as how the individual paid them back. A failure to pay back a loan in a timely fashion will count against the individual and lower his score.

Settlements

Outstanding debts, particularly delinquent debts, pull down an individual's credit score. Settling these debts can often help improve a score by eliminating outstanding debts. However, any time an individual settles a loan for less than the amount he originally owed, a credit reporting agency will consider this to be a sign that the individual is at increased risk of defaulting on a loan and will lower his score accordingly; precisely how much it will be lowered will depend on the rest of his credit history and the amount written off by the lender.

Length of Time

According to U.S. law, negative information on an individual's credit report can only stay on the report for a maximum of seven years before it must be removed. This includes reports of debt settlements. Once a settlement has been removed from a credit report, it can longer affect a person's score. The only exception to this law is bankruptcies -- a variety of settlement -- which can be listed for up to 10 years.

Options

Although the presence of a settlement will hurt a person's credit score, a creditor is under no obligation to report a settled debt as a settlement to a credit reporting agency. In fact, a creditor could, if he chose, report the debt to the credit reporting agency as paid in full. This would help preserve the debtor's credit rating. As part of the debt settlement, some debtors demand that creditors report the settled debt as paid in full.

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How Quick Can a Credit Score Rise?

A person's credit score measures the probability that she will repay her loans. These scores range from 300 to 850, with 620 being the minimum "good credit" score. Your credit score can rise rapidly by following a few guidelines.

Time Frame

It is possible to see a significant rise in your credit score within three to six months, and a credit score can begin to rise in as little as one to two months.

Function

Debt-to-credit ratio is a large factor in your credit score. Generally, debt at 30 percent of your credit limit is considered ideal. Paying down your credit card balances will lead to a fast increase in your credit score.

Considerations

How fast your credit score will rise depends on your financial status. For instance, someone with a history of bankruptcy will need more time to reach a good credit score than a person with one charged-off account. Additionally, some financial institutions report to the credit bureaus sooner than others, so it may take more time to see certain negative items disappear from your credit report.

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Do It Yourself Bad Credit Repair After Bankruptcy

Re-establishing your credit after a bankruptcy is very much like building it up for the first time, but with an additional challenge. The bankruptcy will stay on your credit reports for seven to ten years so you must repair your credit well enough to offset the negative effect. You don't need to hire anyone for bad credit repair. No one can magically restore a good credit rating. You can do it yourself as long as you are prepared to be patient and manage your money and credit cards responsibly.

Instructions

1

Get a credit card and use it for small purchases each month. You will most likely have to get a secured account after your bankruptcy. It will be guaranteed by a bank deposit in the same amount as your credit limit. Secured cards are easy to get even if your credit rating is bad because the lender doesn't take any risk. It simply takes your deposit if you default on your payments.

2

Pay off your credit card balance in full every month and make sure your payments are received before the deadline. This establishes an on-time payment history, which is the single biggest factor in raising your credit score according to FICO, the biggest scoring company. It also shows you can use the card properly without running up too much debt or skipping payments. This will make you look more attractive to other creditors.

3

Apply for an installment loan to diversify your accounts. FICO gives you a higher score if you have a mix of revolving credit, like a credit card, and installment accounts like car or furniture loans. Furniture stores, appliance stores and other retailers may open an account for you if you put down a large deposit and have built up a good history with your secured card for several months.

4

Open an unsecured revolving credit account. You may have to start with a gasoline credit card rather than a Visa, MasterCard or other major brand as they are often easier to obtain when you've had some credit problems. Using it and paying it promptly will repair your credit enough to qualify for a regular card after about six to twelve months.

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