How To Interact With Credit Bureaus
By Nikola Govorko
While it is possible living without a good score, it will certainly make your life much harder. All of us need it in order to buy or rent a home, car, have a card etc.
Credit bureaus hold the keys of our score. There are only a few bureaus in the US and through them all our reports are processed. They handle all the information that any of your creditors submits to them and by using this information your report is created.
In case that your history is not so good, you will have to start with a repair. To do this you are going to have to study how to interact and deal with bureaus.
1. First thing that you need to do is to find out exactly which bureau contains your file. It is very simple, just take a look at one of the rejection letters that you have received when you applied for credit. In the letter besides other information will be stated which bureau provided has provided your report.
2. For the next step you are going to need to get your report. It is free to obtain it once per year or every time your application has been denied. Be aware that sometimes companies can imply that you should always pay for a report, but in fact you have to pay for it only in case that you want it right away.
Credit bureaus are basically information collectors and sellers. Because of that you should never provide them with any information that you are not legally obliged to do. And by the law the only info you need to provide is: name, legal address and your social security number.
In some cases bureaus will request of you to provide a social security card copy and a copy of a document that proves your current address, this will happen only in case that your address is different from the one they have on your file.
Sometimes they can also ask you for a copy of your drivers license as proof of your address, just send them a copy of some bill with your address on it.
Credit bureaus are the owners of numerous collection agencies, and in case that you have problems you should provide them with the smallest amount of info you legally can. Otherwise they can use it to harass you with it.
3. When you get it, check it out carefully for any mistakes. If there are some mistakes in your report, send a letter to the bureau in which you request that those mistakes be removed from your report.
Credit bureaus are obligated by law to prove that any item on your report is correct, if they can not do that within 30 days limit, then they must remove it. This is, in most cases, the thing that many repair companies will do for you and they are going to charge you dearly for it.
Many times negative items are several years old and hard to verify so they have to be removed from your report. You should know that you can save a lot of money if you decide to go through this process alone.
You will need
a lot of patience, time and willingness to learn but it can be done. Besides you are going to learn a lot about finances in the process and it can be of great help to you in the future.
Article Source: http://www.articles-galore.com
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