Page 39 - Winning The Credit Game Bundle (CK Patrick)

CHECKING YOUR CREDIT REPORT 27

etc. And you get to access each one for free once per year. That means
that, if you only check one at a time, you can check one report every
four months for free.
The three major bureaus which provide credit estimates to potential
lenders are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. Each of these organiza-
tions use proprietary formulas to try to calculate your FICO score
based on the credit score factors we’ve discussed so far. Their reports
may slightly differ from each other because of the different algorithms
and/or accounts reporting, but the scores usually come out to be
within a few points of each other across all three bureaus.
Now, just knowing your credit score does not do much if you don’t
know what specific unpaid bills may be harming it. Your credit report,
when you access it through AnnualCreditReport.com, will list in detail
all negative marks against your credit history.
It will list information about what creditor reported each negative
mark, and that is the information you need: once you know who has
reported you to a credit bureau for nonpayment, you know who you
have to talk to and pay off or challenge ASAP to get the loss on your
scorecard turned into a win.
To get started, why don’t you get online and access your credit
report right now? Access it for only one of the three bureaus, so that
you will be able to access the other two later in the year.
When you open your credit report, you may see a list of complex
acronyms indicating different types of problems that a credit report
can have. Don’t panic: that’s not a list of all the problems with your
report. It’s a key so you can understand any problems that may appear
on your report. Scroll down to see your personal credit history.
If you access your credit report through one of the three bureau
websites, you can access a screen which will show your current credit
score with that bureau, as well as a list of any late payments, debt
collections, or other problems that have been reported to the credit
bureau. This is the list you can use to address each of these negative
marks and change your credit status to “paid as agreed.” We will
address some specific steps you can take to do this in a later chapter.
You may also see things on your credit report that don’t make