Black Mark on Your Credit Report? Order a Copy of Free Credit Report |
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Get a copy of the free credit report to rectify problems like rejection of a rental application owing to a black mark on your credit report. You should never ignore it as an embarrassment. Soon you'll discover a lot more errors and marks on your free credit report that you had no idea about. There are three companies that distribute your credit information. Any of them can be contacted to find out how to get a copy of your free credit report. It's important to remember that your information will not be shared between them, and your creditor may not always send your details to all three. Your reports can be ordered from each nationwide consumer reporting companies simultaneously, or even from only one or two. By law you have the right to order one free copy from each of the three companies every 12 months. Placing an order in 60 days of a rejected application will incur no charge for the report. Beyond this period, the average charge is around 8 dollars per report. Federal law also entitles you to a free credit report in the event of a company taking adverse action against you like denial of application for credit, insurance or employment by asking for your report within the 60-day period of being notified of the action. The notice will provide you the name, address and phone number of the consumer reporting company. You are also entitled to one free credit report a year in case of unemployment and intend to get a new job in 60 days, on welfare or inaccurate report due to fraud that includes identity theft. Otherwise consumer reporting companies can charge up to $9.50 for an additional copy of your report in a 12-month period. Don't make assumptions on the reasons for rejection without first checking your credit report. Take the instance of Dave Smith Jr., who was rejected for a loan. Even though aware of less than perfect records, he asked for a copy of the report for curiosity's sake. It came as a shock to discover a number of black marks on his report instead of his father's. His credit history had been mixed up by the credit bureau with that of his father with a bankruptcy on the report. Besides, a past dispute with a car company he had had was not included on his free credit report and the bad marks remained. You can get errors removed from your free credit report. The procedure involves a dispute form that is included with the report or writing to the bureau about the matter. The law requires the credit bureau to contact the company in dispute within thirty days, as long as your complaint is not dismissed as frivolous. If the error is their fault, they remove it. But if they are able to prove it to be correct, it cannot be removed for 7 to 10 years. Should you feel wronged by the company, you have the right to write a 100-word statement which the law requires the bureaus to distribute along with free credit report to whoever should ask for it in the future. Your free credit report may be free of errors but your credit may not be too good. Then you can make an effort to repair the damage. One of the first things that may come to mind could be one of the thousands of credit doctors. Never even try them. Beware of claims of erasing bad credit, helping to start on a clean board or great credit in no time. These are impossible claims and some of them may involve illegal acts that could land you behind bars. Your only solution for getting rid of black marks for late payments and bankruptcy are simply to wait and try rebuilding credit with better management of finances. You have many options for helping you get your finances in control and many are even free. |
