LWM

Credit Bureaus & FICO scores

Many people get too over concerned with credit bureaus and credit reports. Do you know what your FICO score is? Do you care? I used to be real concerned about it but learned that the FICO score is really a “I love debt score” because if you were independently wealthy and paid for everything with cash you would have a very low FICO score as you would have no record of debt and payment history.

It is funny that you could have a better credit score than Donald Trump or Bill Gates but the truth of the matter is you just might have, and that is even if you have bad credit because those guys don’t need a FICO score to make a purchase on credit, they avoid credit & debt.

But the good news is if you get rid of your credit cards and regularly make your house payment, everything else is dropped from your credit report in seven years except a bankruptcy which stays on for 10 years.

Now I am not saying you should ignore your credit report, you should get a copy and review it at least once a year and you can do that for free. In a recent survey of 200 people it was discovered that 79% of those people had an error in their credit report and 25% of those were serious enough to have been denied credit. If you do not own the home you plan on living in for the rest of your life you will someday need the FICO score to get that dream house so keep an eye on your credit report.

If you do discover an error in your credit history you can write the credit bureau and they are required to remove the disputed item within 30 days of the notice if they cannot verify the original claim with the source.

There are three major credit bureaus and each one must provide you with a free copy once a year. You can request all three at one time or I suggest you spread it out and get one from a different one every four months all year long so that you do not go 12 months before you see a major problem in your reports.

EXPERIAN

Phone: (888) 379-3742
www.experian.com

EQUIFAX CREDIT BUREAU

Phone: (800) 685-1111
www.equifax.com

TRANSUNION CREDIT BUREAU

Phone: (877) 322-8228
www.transunion.com

You can also file complaints about any of these three with the Federal Trade Commission at:

Phone: (202) 326-2222
Address: 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20580
Website: www.ftc.gov

A couple of other great sites I would also suggest you contact are as follows, the Pre-Screening Opt Out will help get you off all those lists that send you the free credit card applications and the National Do Not Call List will help reduce junk phone calls.

PRE-SCREENING OPT OUT

Phone: (888) 567-6888
www.optoutprescreen.com

NATIONAL DO NOT CALL REGISTRY

Phone: (888) 382-1222
www.donotcall.gov


Feel free to send me a PM if you have questions or you can add them to the comments section if you feel others can benefit from the discussion.