Why, Who, and How Can Others Find Your Private Past on a Paper Report?

The file is supposed to be an objective record of your credit history, in essence a sorted copy of information furnished to the credit reporting agency by companies you have done business with on credit.

Invasion of Privacy - Too Bad

 

Who Has Access To Your Report

 

Credit Reports Come In Different Shapes and Sizes

 

Deciphering Your Credit Report

The credit history shows your name, address, Social Security number and birth date; your open accounts, with balances and credit limits; whether you pay them on time or not; whether any of them are or were turned over for collection; any suits, judgments, or tax liens; and so on. It may also include, according to {Your Credit Rating}, your employer, position, and income; your former address and former employer; your spouse's name, SSN, employer, and income; and whether you rent or own your home.

A separate key or explanation should be included with the report you receive. Sit down and spend some time with it. If you gave it an honest try and it still seems like Sanskrit, you might ask a trusted friend to go over it with you.

Three Agencies are Responsible For Correctly Reporting Your Credit History

There are three big ones: Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union, all with national databases. There is also a fourth one, called Innovis. Most credit grantors report to one or more of them. In general, the credit reporting agencies don't pass information back and forth to each other. So you actually have at least three credit histories, not one.

There are also local credit reporting agencies and reporting agencies. They're nowhere near as widespread as the big three. However, they are also subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so anything said here applies to them, too.

theyre not government affilated

Creditors and Others Report to the Three Credit Reporting Agencies

How long does it take for an event (positive or negative) to show up on my credit report? Suppose you've just paid off a large loan and you're applying for a car loan or a mortgage. It would be nice to know that the lender who pulls your report will see that the old loan was paid off.

However, credit grantors' contracts with credit reporting agencies may or may not specify a timetable for grantors to report new information to the bureau. If the credit grantors are tardy, there's not much the credit reporting agency can or will do, since those same credit grantors are also the customers of the credit reporting agency. Also, credit reporting agencies may gather information directly from public records, on any schedule they please.

The answer to this Q, as a practical matter, is that there is no time limit for posting information. In fact, you don't have a legal right to insist on any report being made at all. (You can get false items corrected, but you can't legally insist on omitted information being added.) If you've actually paid off a debt that is still reported as unpaid, about all you can do is go through the procedure in our document, Note that you can certainly provide the credit grantor with documents that show the loan was repaid. I did this at the time of my mortgage with two accounts that showed as 'open.'

Your Accounts Can Remain on Your Credit Report for Years

The Credit Reporting Agencies are Notorious For Reporting Serious Errors

The Impact of Credit Inquiries

Whenever you or anyone else asks for a copy of your credit report, the request is supposed to be noted as part of your credit history. If you apply for lots of credit cards in a short time, this will produce a flurry of "inquiry" notes on your credit report. Lenders often turn this around and assume that a flurry of inquiries means you've recently applied for lots of credit, so they turn you down on that basis even though the inference is not strictly valid.

If a lender cites "excessive inquiries" as a reason for turning you down, this is what has happened. The lender has guidelines for how many inquiries in what period of time is too many. Unfortunately, you have no legal right to challenge this policy or even to know what the specific criteria may be.

Don't give your name or address to a merchant until you're actually ready to apply for credit there. Some merchants illegally run credit checks on you as soon as they have your name and address, even though you have not applied for credit, to give them an idea of what to sell you and how. (I'm told many car dealers do this.)

I don't know what legal recourse, if any, you have against unauthorized inquiries.

If lender A sees inquiries from B, C, and D but no new accounts, A may assume that B, C, and D turned you down for credit. Figuring "better safe than sorry," A may then turn you down just because it assumes B, C, and D turned you down. Again, this is a judgment call on the part of A, and you have no legal right to challenge it. If you have not applied for any credit recently but have been, say, looking at cars at several dealerships, you might want to let the lender know this in case it's taking unauthorized inquiries into account.

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