There are three credit bureaus in the US; Experian, Trans Union and Equifax all of whom will hold sensitive information about your finances and your financial history - good and bad.
Whenever a person applies for credit of any kind one or more of the these credit bureaus will be informed and the information will be posted on your file, irrespective whether you are approved or declined it will all be recorded. If your application is declined you are entitled to know whether it is to do with your credit rating or not but not the specific details. You are also entitled to know with which credit bureau the credit check was performed with.
This poses the question whether you should request a copy of your credit report from that specific credit bureau or from each of the three. The simple answer is that you should request a credit report from each one in order to gain an complete picture of your credit and how it has been recorded.
To obtain a copy of your credit report from either of the three credit bureaus just go online to their respective websites and make an application. All US citizens are entitled to a free copy of their credit reports from each of the three bureaus, this entitlement is recurring and credit reports can be requested at no cost once every twelve months. You can also apply by mail for your credit reports if you prefer but obviously it will take longer for you to receive your reports.
When you receive your credit reports there are certain sections that you need to pay particular attention to:
The initial section will detail your name and address and this will need to be checked for errors or inaccuracies. If there are any found you will need to contact the agency that has recorded the incorrect information to ensure they amend their records and update your file.
The second section gives details of all your current bills. Again all this information needs to be checked for inaccuracies. You may find that your reports will each hold different information about you, the reason for this is because your creditors may only occasionally report to just one or two of the bureau but usually all three are notified, but again, it will depend on who you are applying for credit from.
This can also mean that you may have an excellent credit rating with two bureaus but a much less impressive rating with the other. By having access to this information you may be able to ask potential lenders with which credit bureau they will be checking your rating with and make a decision whether to proceed with the application based upon their answer.
You should thoroughly check each listing of your bills, the amount of the payment and the due date. If you have made a late payment or have missed a payment completely it will be shown on your credit report.
Checking who has been making enquiries about your credit history is also important as your records can only be checked with your authorization, if you do see any unauthorized access you should report it to the credit bureau concerned immediately.
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