INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR CREDIT REPORT

A credit report is a history of your credit activity. Credit reports are formed by creditors sending monthly reports to companies that accumulate the data and offer that data for sale to other creditors, employers, governments, etc. Your credit report says a lot about you. It is an indicator of how you treat the trust that lenders have placed with you with their money.

I have been in the banking business since 1985 and have seen a few thousand credit reports. Each one is as unique as the person that it is reporting on. Many years ago, employers began to require that credit reports be obtained on prospective employees. The report shows how you manage a most critical asset, your money. Firms feel that a person that does not manage their own money well, will NOT manage the firm's resources well either. Some employers require periodic credit reports to monitor employee credit over time.

Protect your credit. Keep your spending within your means. Check your credit every year!!

WHO CAN ACCESS YOUR CREDIT: The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) covers who can legally access your credit.

EMPLOYERS: Your employer or a potential employer may obtain a credit report on you on a regular basis or base their hiring decision on your report.

Regulated industries (banks) often have policies that a credit report be obtained before hiring. They may also have security policies that allow them to periodically pull a credit report on employees. The military has a morality policy that warns those in uniform that they must pay their obligations timely. Security clearances may be revoked if there are credit related problems (thus ending ones career).

POTENTIAL CREDITORS: may use the information to make a decision on a credit application that you placed with them.

INSURANCE COMPANIES: may use your credit report to decide if they will insure your health, auto, home, family.

THROUGH YOUR AUTHORIZATION: Banks that you have an account with or a credit relationship with may pull a credit report periodically. Many financial institutions have disclosure language on thier new account forms; as you are opening an account you are signing that you give the institution the permission to pull a credit report whenever they want to. They are using the report for credit possibilities to offer you. They may also use a credit report before opening a checking account as the check clearing houses report NSF activity to the bureaus. Checking account requests may be disapproved if your credit report is not up to snuff.


YOUR CREDIT REPORT CONTAINS:
1. Your name
2. Current address
3. Date of Birth
4. Former Address
5. Current and former employer
6. Social Security number

WHERE TO OBTAIN YOUR CREDIT REPORT. Here are the addresses, phone numbers, and web addresses of the three major credit bureaus:

EXPERIAN:
National Consumer Assistance Center
P.O. Box 949, Allen, Texas 75013
800-682-7654
www.experian.com/personal

TRANS UNION:
Consumer Disclosure Center
P.O. Box 390, Springfield, PA 19064
800-888-4213
www.tuc.com

EQUIFAX:
Information Service Center
P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, Georgia 30374
800-685-1111
www.equifax.com

FYI