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Big Brother Knows Whats in Your Credit Report - How About You?


Whether you are aware of it or not, credit bureaus have been keeping tabs on you and how you use credit. When it's time for you to apply for a mortgage, credit card, or personal loan, your credit report is what lenders look at to decide to approve you or not.

Information about you is collected and stored in national repositories. Every time you apply for credit, whether it's a retail store charge account or an auto loan, the information you provide gets sent to the credit bureaus. When you are late paying a loan, it shows up on your report. If you have ever been in a dispute with a merchant and you refused to pay them, the merchant can report your non-payment to the credit bureaus for all lenders to see.

Your credit history is an important part of getting a loan. By getting a glimpse of how you handled debt obligations in the past, lenders can estimate the likelihood that you will pay back their loan in the future.

What's in your credit report?
Credit reports are chock full of goodies to keep your lender busy. If you have never seen your report, you may be surprised at how much information is actually gathered.

Who is Big Brother?
The three major credit bureaus are Equifax, Experian, and Transunion. The information that they have on you may not be identical. One may have accurate records, but another might have an error that can prevent you from getting a loan. Since you do not know which bureau a lender will use to base their approval decision, you should inspect your report from all three bureaus. Equifax offers a 3 in 1 report where you can view your credit report from all three bureaus in a single transaction.

Before you apply for any loan it is wise to review your credit report. This way you can fix any errors before the loan process begins, saving you time and frustration if you get rejected due to a correctable problem caused by big brother and not you.

Jon Galanty is a financial writer for eMoneyCentral.com. Visit http://www.emoneycentral.com to find out more about credit, loans, banking, and to get other great money tips.

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