You and Your Credit

Good credit is not only important - it’s a must!

Only a good credit history will provide the best offers and the lowest interest rates.

Most Americans suffer with spots on their credit.  In most cases, a few spots will not keep you from buying a home, although they might affect your loan amount, the programs we can use, or the interest rate you would get. 

Once you get your credit report you should make sure the following information is correct:

• Your name, or names if you are (or, were) married

• Social Security Number

• Your past and present addresses

• Names of places you've worked

• Pending accounts and accounts that have been closed

• That nothing has been on the report longer than is allowed by law 

• Bankruptcies must be taken off your credit history after 10 years

• Suits and judgments, tax liens, arrest records must be dropped after 7 years

• Most other kinds of unfavorable information must be dropped after 7 years

Records of delinquent payments or problems

Any error that you find must be investigated by the credit bureau with the creditor who supplied the data.  The bureau will remove any errors a creditor admits are theirs.  If you disagree with the findings, you can file a short statement in your record giving your side of the story.  Future reports to creditors must include this statement or a summary of it.  The Fair Credit Billing Act requires creditors to correct errors promptly and without damage to your credit rating.

Once you have written about a possible error, a creditor must not give out information to other creditors, or credit bureaus, that would hurt your credit reputation, until the matter is resolved.  And until your complaint is answered, the creditor also may not take any action to collect the disputed amount.