Have bad credit and want to know where you stand?  Good news!…absolutely free credit reports are available to you from all 3 of the national consumer reporting companies.  You've taken the first step...but there is not a minute to lose.  Correcting a bad credit score is critical in getting out of debt, consolidating the bad loans, and putting money back in your pocket.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act has a requirement of each of these personal credit providers to provide every citizen access to free credit ratings in the form of a free credit report:

What will it include

Your free credit report includes information on your current living arrangments, your police and court records, and whether you have filed for bankruptcy.  These are all items that your bank and financial institution will be looking at to gauge whether there is credit risk in bad credit loans.  These reports are sold to the credit institutions and are used by your employers, insurers, and insurance providers. Its important to know that you have rights when it comes to your report and you have the ability to repair your credit report.

• Equifax
• Experian
• Transunion 

Fixing your credit Report

Bad credit reports do  not always have correct information.  What may be perceived to be a poor credit report may be the result of an inacurrate or old report.  The 3 credit bureaus (i.e. experian credit report) mentioned above process huge amounts of information every day...its easy to imagine that mistakes can occur.  To correct mistakes, start by phoning your credit provider.  Usually, this will do the trick and most providers have an automatic means to submit the report into the authorities.  However, be prepared.  Write down their responses with dates, names and be in the frame of mind you may have to go to court to clear it up.  By law, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that each of the credit bureaus who issues these reports must correct their mistakes.  However, this same act does not require that the credit issuer correct theirs.

So, first phone the credit bureau with mistakes that appear to be theirs.  For mistakes that cannot be corrected this way, phone the credit provider themselves.

Your Credit report inclusions will generate a credit score that your lender will use.

Next....What are Credit Scores?