My credit reports may be as disastrous as yours. Now, to find ways to improve it

Credit reports are like a gold mine of information about a consumer. These reports contain date of birth, social security number, current and previous address, status of credit payment, legal information, employment and telephone number. Credit report is credit history created by data that is provided by the consumers from different sources. Companies that grant you credit, report about your account regularly to the three credit reporting agencies. I have the right to know if someone has made an inquiry about my credit report or has requested for the report over the last six months. When you receive reports it should include the identity of all the enquiries.

Decisions regarding the credit worthiness based on my credit report are not made by the credit reporting agencies. Rather the reporting agencies compile reports of what my file contains and pass it along to the potential creditor. Decisions related to credit are generally made based upon various factors that consist of a score. Inquiries that are made related to the application for credit may also be an important factor in the credit score. For instance if you have applied for several loans or credit cards in a short time span then this might lead to a low score. Inquiries that are made for pre-approved credit offers or something that you make on my own will not result in a low score. The credit scoring practice is growing and widespread and in recent years consumers have been gaining access to their credit score and have been able to learn about the factors that go into the scoring process. There are certain pieces of information that cannot be in the credit report like:

• Medical information (without the consent of the consumer)
• Bankruptcy notice (10 years older or more than that)
• Debts that also include payments related to delinquent child support (more than 7 years old)
• For residents of California, information, records of arrest or any misdemeanor complaints should not be present in the report after seven years. But according to the Federal Law, criminal conviction records might remain on my credit report indefinitely.
• Marital status, age or race (if request is from a prospective or current employer)