Credit Reports Inside and Out

The Credit Report is like your scorecard in the lending world. Every time you prepare yourself to acquire or purchase something that requires financial assistance from a lending institution, your credit report will be your "presentation card".

You also need to realize that other entities like employers and insurance companies often use your credit score to determine if they want to do business with you.

There are three credit bureaus where you can request a copy of your credit report (Equifax, Trans Union and Experian); and the information that you'll get with any of these three bureaus it's basically the same: your current and previous address, social security number, date of birth, current and previous employers and of course a list of every single open account you have with data like: credit limit, current balance, minimum payment, and your payment behavior.

Once the Credit Bureaus gather all your information, they give you a rating between 300 and 850, being 850 a perfect credit score. Each Credit Bureau makes its rating individually, and you will want to get the blended credit score at least once a year.

You can't assume that because one of your reports is showing accurate information that the other two will be showing the same. In fact, it's very common to discover discrepancies between the three reports.

Also, you must know that a credit score under 600 is consider very risky and a credit score above 700 is consider very good.

You should set a goal of keeping your credit score above 700 at all times, because excellent credit will lead you towards a better life.