But did you know, that lenders view your credit report, should you want services in the future? If you have a house mortgage or if you decide to change your gas and electricity supplier and in some circumstances,even when applying for a job, your credit report tells a lot about you.
Your credit report, is not about a simple yes or no answer. Over time it has moved away from this simple process and nowadays it looks at your rate of risk. The report tells financial institutions, if you can borrow, and how much money you can have.
So why is it important to keep on top of your credit report?
There is a lot of information on your credit file, that you might not even be aware of. As stated earlier it is more about keeping your payments up to date. Every time you apply for finance or a new energy supplier, a credit check happens.
The credit checks register on your report, and give creditors cause for consideration. If you can check it yourself, it helps you to know whether you have applied for a product or service or not.
Not trying to scare you, but fraud and identity theft are happening a lot more. Fraudsters are getting hold of peoples details, and applying for products and services in their name.
Have you ever been a victim of ID fraud? If you have, then your lender should have registered this with an organisation called CIFAS. They are an organisation that holds information about fraudulent happening at your address.
CIFAS tells the lender more information, such as if you were the victim of Identity fraud. So that they know this does not have an impact, when you are applying for credit. So if you see a CIFAS marker on your file, and you were unaware you need to investigate further.
If you were a victim of ID fraud, this can harm your credit file, and cause problems, if you need a product or service, that needs a credit check.
After the credit crunch back in 2007, credit reports are very important to all institutions when considering loans. Let’s say you have a mortgage, two credit cards, and a contract mobile phone.
You then decided that you want to buy a car, and you can afford the repayments. But, when you apply, they declined. You feel confused as you are paying your payments on time and you think your report is excellent.
Your report may be, but to a creditor, they have to ensure that you are in a position to meet with the payments. Including what you are already paying out. You need to view your credit file, in this scenario, you may have had an old loan which you paid but not closed on your record.
So you must contact the creditor and explain it, and they can close the file, and they can already accept you for the car loan. This is just one scenario, and there are many.
NEVER LEAVE IT TO A CREDITOR TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR REPORT.
Your credit report belongs to you, and it is vital that you take care of it. While you might not be looking to get any credit soon, you should keep in mind that you might want a credit, a year or two down the line.
There are many options available to view your credit file, as there is more than one credit agency. Different companies use different agencies when doing a credit search due to costs.
There are more reasons that you should keep on top of your report than there is not to. If you haven’t checked , why not start today and check it, you never know what you will find out. More importantly if you have something you need to fix, at least you can fix it right away.
If you feel that there is something on the report that should not be there, you have the right to dispute this with the creditor, that has placed the marker on your report.
And remember that all data listed is for a maximum of six years so if something is there that should not be then it’s good to deal with it now.
See my disclaimer.
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