The Truth of Credit

Many of you have viewed your credit report from freecreditreport.com or annualcreditreport.com but as I have posted before not all credit reports are created equal. In short, the credit report you pull from these popular sites is not always the same as the one the banks will pull to check your credit. Today, I want to talk about what exactly is on your report and what is not.

Most commonly:

-Identification and Employment Data

-Payment History on your accounts

-A listing of all creditors who have recently requested copies of your report

-Public Record Information (such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, court judgments)

Sometimes:

-Spouses name

-Spouses Social Security #

-Other known aliases

Never: (Unless severely delinquent)

-Cable Bills

-Utilities

-Accounts closed that are older than 7 years old

-Bank Account Information

The TRUTH is that you need to know this information because collectors are notorious for using bad or false information to collect a debt. Example, they will ask you why you’re paying your cable bill and not paying their client. At this point they are grasping at straws but they also have nothing to lose because most people are ignorant to what exactly is on their report. In addition, the same principle applies to bank account information they have no way of knowing whether you have an account or what the balance is.

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