A Comprehensive Guide to Credit Reports

Welcome to our guide to credit reports.  You get judged constantly by lending institutions via your credit report. Whenever you apply for credit, whether it is to buy a house, a car, a cell phone, or to take advantage of the 0% interest purchase offers at a local Best Buy, they pull your credit report. Latest trends indicate that companies are not inclined to make a job offer to someone with bad credit!

Your credit report will contain all your financial grease and grime. There is no way to sweep them under your carpet. If you have ever missed a phone payment, gone bankrupt, or applied for a loan of any type, it will show.

We strongly feel that we ought to make this institution a valuable ally to our finances. This guide is compiled by many data points collected from numerous discussion forums as well as research surveys. Our objective is to dig through the inner workings of this system and to make the best out of it.

Quick Start Guides

• 4 quick tips to help ace your credit report.
  A summary of 4 simple tips to help you ace your credit report.
• How to read your credit report.
  Credit reports can be very long and confusing. This is a guide to getting and reading it.
• How to dispute errors on your credit report.
  This walk-through outlines the steps to correct errors that you may find on your credit report.
• Understanding Your Credit Score.
  This article goes in depth of all the credit scores currently available.
• Home Financing Tips.
  One of the main reasons to care about your credit profile - saving money on your big loan: your mortgage.
• Credit building for international students.
  International students need a credit history as well. This article summarizes the essential steps required.
• Getting your credit report online when denied credit.
  If your credit application is denied, they tell you that you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report. This articles show you how to get it .

Credit Bureaus and Credit Scores
There are three major credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They are private, for profit entities. They all maintain the position that their scoring models are "trade secrets," and they reveal as little as possible about their details. Moreover, they are regularly tweaked in ways that are not publicized. This is why there is no single formula answer to how much a certain factor would affect a given person's credit score.

A Few Important Reasons for High Credit Scores
An acceptably high credit score is more important in recent years than at any time since scoring models were developed. If your score is low, you will:

• pay more to get mortgages, car loans, and other credit;
• be less likely to get offered a job;
• be unable to get many brokerage or bank accounts;
• pay more, perhaps much more, for insurance;
• get turn away from apartment rentals;

and those are just some of the effects that are widely documented!

"Adequate" vs. "Excellent" Credit Scores
If you score between 680 and 720, depending on the model, it is considered "Adequate" for all practical purposes. When you get to 760 or above, you will reach what is considered “Excellent” for most cases.  Getting to the “Excellent” level can easily take many years.

Why would an "Excellent" credit score be helpful?
First, excellent scores often entail generous "invitation only" deals. Capital One has been especially aggressive with superb terms and huge lines to >760 credit scorers. Second, lenders save their best rates for excellent scorers. Farm Bureau Bank, for example, will give a “no fee prime + 0” business line of credit.  Finally, it is nice to have a "cushion space." Your credit score is likely to fluctuate with the “special invitations.” It certainly is a relief to know your score will be in a safe 700 range even if you accept a few of those invitations.

We always value your feedbacks and suggestions to improve our guides.  As a matter of fact, we love to hear from our readers!  You are the inspiration that keeps us moving foward.