• What is Debt Consolidation?
  Learn how debt consolidation works to reduce interest rates and save money.
• What Can Be Consolidated?
  Types of high-interest debts commonly used.
• What is Debt Settlement?
  Often confused with, but significantly different than consolidating.
• What Debts Can Be Settled?
  Learn what kind of creditors that will often settle for less.
• How Do Bankruptcies Work?
  How Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies work, and the aftermath on your credit report.

• Budgeting Tips
• Working With Credit Reports
• More Articles & Information
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Credit Reports

Personal details also are given in your credit report, like: your Social Security number, phone numbers (even if it's unlisted), address, recent previous addresses, birth date and info on your employment history. Public record matters like civil judgments, bankruptcies and tax liens are also listed in your credit report.

Right now, three large national credit bureaus monopolize the credit reporting industry: TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. These credit bureaus run nearly 1.3 billion credit reports a year, and each of the three bureaus has approximately 225 million personal credit reports on record.

A credit report also includes a credit rating (your FICO score) FICO scores go from about 300 to 850 with an US standard (midpoint) around 725. FICO scores above 720 are judged to be a "good credit" rating, while every FICO score short of 600 is understood to be a poor rating.

Why is a credit report important?
Your credit report is critical because most financial decisions in your life will use the information in your report to some degree. At the most basic level it will be used to determine if you will be granted credit, to a lesser degree it may be used to determine the rate you pay for mortgages, loans and even insurance.

As an example of how your credit rating can impact you consider a mortgage of $216,000 amortized over 30 years. Assuming you hold the minimum FICO score (620 to 639) to qualify for the mortgage you would pay 8.13% or $1605 monthly, yet if you had the largest FICO score (760 to 850) you would pay 6.54% or $1371 monthly. This equates to a $234 savings a month, or $84,240 over the lifespan of the mortgage.

• 35% on your payment history.
• 30% on how much you owe.
• 15% on the amount of time you have had a credit history.
• 10% on the amount of new types of credit you've asked for.
• 10% on the types of credit used.

Now you know that to improve your FICO score you have to pay your bills in a timely manner, lower the amount of debt you have, limit your requests for new credit and steer clear of high-risk credit.

What else can you do?
Visit the credit bureau at annualcreditreport.com to get a free copy of your credit report from every credit reporting company. In the U.S.A. a federal law the FACT Act (Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act), entitles every legal U.S. citizen to one free copy of their credit report from each credit reporting agency once every twelve months. However, this report does not contain credit scores.

Examine your information for errors like your name being wrong, wrong address both present and past, right social security numbers, ect. Also review your financial information for such things as loans with a balance due even though paid back, and credit cards or other accounts you have cancelled. The more factual your reports are, the less questions a financer will have to ask when you apply for a loan. So make sure you report all errors and have the mistakes taken care of rigt away.