Your Credit When is the last time you saw your credit report? Do you know your credit score? 70% of all credit reports have errors in them. You should review your credit at least once per year, and you are entitled to get a free credit report from each of the three credit bureau companies each year. Free Credit Report By going to www.annualcreditreport.com, you can order a free copy of your credit report. Although it won’t give you your credit score, you’ll be able to see everything that is being reported. If you don’t recognize an account, or disagree with how it is reported, you should dispute it. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Transunion) report accurate credit information. Disputing Suspected Errors You can dispute an item by either going on line or in writing. The three websites are; www.equifax.com, www.experian.com, and www.transunion.com. If you have supporting documentation, mail it to the credit bureaus with your dispute. If you don’t have supporting documentation, but feel the information the credit bureaus are reporting is incorrect, you can still dispute it. Once you have notified the bureaus of the inaccurate item, they must confirm their information with the reporting agency. Half of all disputes are resolved in this manner without you having to provide additional information. If the reporting agency confirms the item as correct, you can contact the reporting agency directly, preferably in writing, and demand they correct it. Remember, the burden of proof is on the reporting agency, not you. Sometimes you have to send several letters to both the credit bureaus and the reporting agency to have an item corrected. Credit Score Your credit score is how most lenders determine your risk as a borrower. The higher the score, the better of a risk you are to a lender. Your goal should be to have a credit score of 700 or more. If credit scores were school grades, they would look like this: 700+ is an A, 680-700 is a B, 660-680 is a C, 600-660 is a D, and anything less than 600 is an F.
Things that improve your credit are having low debt to loan ratios (credit card balances are less than 50% of the credit lines) and making timely payments. The longer the period of good payments, the better the credit score.
Things that negatively affect your credit are late payments, collection accounts (no matter the amount), high debt to loan ratios (credit card balances are more than 70% of the credit line) and inquiries on your credit (so be selective when applying for a loan).
Watch out for charge offs and collections, they will keep reappearing and lowering your credit score. The best thing to do is to settle the balances as soon as possible. Most collections will settle for about 50% of the balance if you pay it all at once, and in some cases they’ll let you split up the payment over a 30 day period, but be careful, and make sure you get their settlement offer in writing before paying them. | 
