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| Your Credit History |
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Your job, your income, your status-none of them say more about your personal and financial future than your
credit history. A good credit history means you'll have an easier time getting credit when you want it- for a new home,
new car, or a credit card- and sometimes even with lower rates. Your credit history is publicly available information
on how you have handled your past financial relationships. It usually contains the information listed below.
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- Identification: Your name, address (including past addresses), Social Security number, and birth date.
You supply this information every time you apply for credit. Filling out forms consistently (such as entering your name
the same way every time) helps reduce errors in your report.
- Employment: Your current job and employer. It may also include past employers.
- Credit: Creditors supply monthly details such as your outstanding balances, credit limits, monthly
payments, and payment patterns over several years. Information about closed accounts remains on your report
for seven years. Prospective creditors often use this section to evaluate patterns in your handling of credit,
especially for the last two or three years.
- Public Record: This includes bankruptcy, tax liens, and judgment against you and, in some cases,
overdue child support. Information remains on your report for seven years, except for bankruptcy, which can
remain for up to ten years. Unresolved judgments can remain on your report for seven years or until the
governing statute of limitations has expired, whichever is longer.
- Inquiries: If you request credit from a lender, their inquiry will appear on your report for two years.
Inquiries made in order to solicit your business will appear only in your copy of the report.
Promotional Inquiries:Yours report may contain a list of companies that have made
promotional inquiries about you. Firms and banks that are interested in contacting you with credit offers make
these inquiries because you fit a certain set of criteria. They only appear in your copy of the report.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you can tell the credit bureaus to make your name unavailable to unsolicited cars issuers.
A phone request will be in effect for two years, while a written request will be permanent.
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