Friday, October 26, 2007

credit report - Free FICO Score Reports

If you are in the market to buy a new car or a house, or even to rent property, your FICO score will be checked. The main benefit of credit scoring, lenders argue, is that they can make decisions faster by using automated systems.

You may now ask, "What is a FICO score?" A FICO score is a scoring method developed by the Fair Isaac Corp. to aid the three major credit bureaus, namely, Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. It is a computer model that assesses your credit worthiness against several other customers.

In the past, when you applied for a credit or loan, you were in complete darkness about your credit score. The lender would request the score from one or more credit bureaus and, if you wanted to access such information, you were required to a certain amount of fee. At the present, you can access your credit reports without any charge. You can also have your credit score report send to you via email or post mail free of cost, at a regular time period, such as once monthly.

In the past, if there were too many inquiries made on your credit, your credit scores use to go down. However, when you access your credit report now, it doesn't affect your credit score. Scores also vary based on current credit activity. Since credit bureaus only calculate your score at the lender's request, it will be based on the information in your file at that particular credit bureau, at that particular time only.

There are also many website and companies that now help customers understand and get their credit reports for free. They guide the customer through the process and teach them how to access such information. You would have seen the popular television advertisement of "Freecreditreport.com" You also see a lot of banner advertisements on the web about the subject.

FICO scores provides detailed information about FICO scores, FICO score calculation, and more. FICO scores is affiliated with Filing Bankruptcy Online.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Josh_Riverside

credit report - Pay Your Mortgage on Time

All of us have trouble getting along financially from time to time. There may be a reason behind it that is simple to identify such as losing your job or having a lot of hospital bills come up unexpectedly, but no matter how much trouble that you are having there are certain things that you should never do if it is at all possible, and one of those things is paying your mortgage on time. Here is why you should worry about your mortgage before you worry about any other bill.

Having a mortgage late on your credit report is one of the worst things that you can have happen. It sticks with your credit report for a long time and if you ever need to refinance your home or get another mortgage this will be something that will make it much more difficult. Of course you never want to have any late payments show up on your credit report but having a late mortgage payment is by far the worst that you can do.

So protect your credit and make sure that you are paying your mortgage on time. Take a good look at your mortgage bill see if they have a grace period where you may be able to buy a little extra time before you are actually late. That might help you to make your payment on time as well even though it may not be on the actual due date. Keeping a clean credit report is very important for many reasons. If you are having problems, figure out how to start keeping it clean from this point on, and if your credit report is clean already make sure that you keep it that way. A clean credit report will follow you through your life and help you to get more of what you need.

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