The Credit Challenge

Do you know anything about the Fair Credit Reporting Act?  If you don’t, you really should because they are your rights.

For those of you that don’t know, you have certain rights as it pertains to a credit report.  Most of us think that the banks and lending institutions are the only ones with rights when it comes to your credit report, but that’s not true at all.

So, what should you know about the Fair Credit Reporting Act?  Here’s a couple things that are helpful to know.

• Your credit report has everything to do with your credit payments, credit history, and credit record and nothing to do with your age, race, marital status,  national origin, religion, or even if you receive public assistance.
• You MUST receive a decision on your credit inquiry within 30 days.  Whether you are approved or not, the lenders only have 30 days to notify you with their decision.  After 30 days they are in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  If you weren’t approved, they must include a detailed statement of why you were denied credit and also mention your rights, including access to a free credit report.
• The Fair Credit Reporting Act also gives you the right to a free copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus once every 12 months.  Go to www.AnnualCreditReport.com for your free credit report.  It is good to see your credit report and look for any errors or identity theft, among other things.
• You have a right to dispute any inaccuracies on your credit report, and creditors must respond to you within 30 days.  If you were right or the creditor cannot show proof, they must remove that negative account from your report.  If it cannot be removed, then you have a right to include a 100 word statement or explanation for consideration and clarification on the item that you disputed.

As you can see, there are many rights that you have under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.  It’s important that you know them because you may be missing out on getting your credit report for free or even settling for a lower credit score that you really deserve.

If you are interested in finding out more tips like this, be sure to visit here Fix Your Credit Score to get a free audio interview on obtaining a credit score of over 700.

I was thinking about all the news regarding the credit crunch.  Most news talks about the problems that we face because of this credit crunch, where banks are not giving out credit like they used to. 

Let me be the first to say “Thank You Credit Crunch.”  The problem isn’t that credit is bad.  The problem is that borrowers are bad!  It’s not the type of bad you think of though.

By borrowers are bad, what I really mean is that they’ve been badly uninformed and under taught.  Most people don’t have the slightest clue how to properly handle their credit as it relates to consumer debt and credit scores.

So, the simple idea of making less money available to less qualifies people is really a good thing, because its easy to let credit and debt consume them.  Its easy for debt to consume all of us, and the ones who lose most are our children, spouse, and communities. 

But rather than just penalizing people for not having good credit, there should be more proactive education on how to use credit.  That is a great way to turn this economy around.  Educate people more and they will make better decisions.

Ultimately, if it would help someone like me to regain some control over my finances, then please step in and help me.  Fortunately, education has made a drastic impact on my life and many others have benefited from it.

Let me know what your thoughts are.  I’d love to hear your opinion on the credit crunch and how effective more financial knowledge would be.