What to do with Your Free Credit Report
Until recently most consumers were not given the opportunity to view their credit reports, for various reasons these reports were only made available to lenders. New laws were passed in conjunction with truth in lending and consumer protection laws that make it possible for everyone to get one free credit report from each of the three major credit reporting agencies every twelve months. While you may have never thought much about it, having direct access to this information can be very important.
When you decide that the time has come to buy a new home or a new car, you are going to have to borrow the money to do so. If you have no idea what your credit looks like, you could be in for a shock when you are turned down for the loan you need and could end up very disappointed. On the other hand if you a copy of your free credit report and can see that there are problems with your current credit rating, you will have the time to take care of them long before you apply for the loan to buy your new house or car.
Once you get your free credit report, you should look it over very carefully. Pay particular attention to any negative entries. The first thing you need to do is verify that each of them is a legitimate entry. Every negative entry will lower your credit score and any that are not valid need to be removed. You can contact any creditor listed and ask them to remove entries that are not valid. Unless they can prove that the entries are legitimate, they have to remove them. This includes collection agencies as well, under current law if they do not have the original contract with your signature, not a copy or a fax, they cannot make entries on your credit record.
After looking at your free credit report, every time you communicate with a lender or collection agency listed, make sure that you keep copies of all written communications and you should record telephone conversations in case one of them tries to dispute something you have already taken care of. Other than this you need to make sure that you make all of your payments on time, as long as you do this for a period of time and get the derogatory information removed, you should be able to restore your credit rating and be able to buy your new home or car and get a loan at a decent interest rate.