Getting To Understand Credit Reports And The Possible Need For Them
Understanding and appreciating credit reports and why they exist becomes necessary anytime one is going to apply for credit (and it’s a mandatory thing for almost everybody these days) and they want to make sure they’ll be successful in the application for it. A credit report can affect much more of a person’s life these days than just whether or not a credit card is issued, for a fact.
To begin with, poor credit can cause you to pay more for everything that you finance and even things that you don’t normally finance but which you are paying for on at least an occasional basis. For example, there are more than several states in the country that allow auto insurers to pull credit to come to a determination of how much to charge for an insurance policy.
Those kinds of companies are doing so because they believe that a person’s credit history can be a good indication of the level of risk they might bring to the game in terms of getting into accidents or receiving traffic tickets and the like. Many experts vehemently dispute this outlook and the states are beginning to come to the conclusion that the practice needs to be outlawed.
What is also good to know is that more and more prospective employers are looking at a prospective employee’s past credit history before coming to a decision about hiring him or her. Keep in mind that a prospective employer must obtain, in writing, permission from the prospective employee to pull credit from one of the three major bureaus (TransUnion, Experian, Equifax) in order to assess it.
Generally speaking, all the above just points out and reinforces the fact that all the different ways in which credit and credit assessment is used in society these days is widespread and very entrenched. Consider how many credit offers come into a person’s mailbox from companies that have pulled a quick look report and then sent out an offer for “possible” credit.
These reports exist as a way of gauging a person’s risk, for the most part. They can provide a 7 to 10 year (or even longer in cases where a bankruptcy has existed in the past) glimpse of a person’s consumer life. Poor credit can mean a much higher interest rate on a mortgage or an automobile loan. In other words, poor credit cost people quite a bit of money over the long run.
This is why it’s very important for a consumer to stay on top of his or her credit history. By law, each of the three credit reporting bureaus must — when asked to do so by a consumer — provide one free copy per year of the credit file they have on a consumer. There won’t be a credit score with it (that can be purchased for additional cost) but it’s a very useful tool to gauge one’s credit history.
Comprehending and appreciating credit reports and why they exist becomes clear anytime an individual is going to apply for credit and they want to make totally sure they’ll be successful in the application for it. Bad credit thus calls for credit repair.
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