Knowing your Credit Report is a MUST!!!!

Why it’s important to know your Credit Report:

A high credit score is vital in this day and age. That score tells financial institutions everything they need to know when making a decision on whether to lend to an individual. Your credit score influences your chances of getting approved for a loan or credit cards. Not only does the score influence your ability to get credit or a loan, it influences the interest rate the bank or financial institution will attach to these financial products. The higher your credit score, the better terms you will be able to negotiate. 

Obtaining your credit score with out obtaining your credit report is similar to receiving back a test grade in school with out actually getting back the actual test. How will you know where you went wrong? How do you know someone didn’t make a mistake when checking that test? It’s the same with a credit report. Mistakes can be and are made regularly. These mistakes result in higher interest rates for consumers or a complete denial of credit period.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the nationwide credit reporting agencies, (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion) to provide consumers with a free copy of their credit reports at your request, once every 12 months. Consumers may visit the website, www.annualcreditreport.comand access these credit reports at no cost. 

Once obtained, consumers may look through these reports and look for irregularities. Such as:

·     Incorrect Information, such as a mis-spelled name or middle initial.

·     Accounts closed by consumers that show up closed by lender or “grantor.”

·     Incorrect payment status. Late payments that show up that were never late. 

·     Having a foreclosure show up as a bankruptcy.

·     Wrong notations for closed accounts.

·     Remedied delinquencies not being report as such.

·     Duplicate accounts

If consumers are having a hard time reading their credit report, they can speak to one of our experienced attorneys and they can help navigate through the report. If there are inconsistencies, our attorneys will take the necessary steps to remedy the error at no cost to the client. 

Why Getting Out of Debt Will Help Improve Your Health

We all know that Debt, for the most part, is bad. Bad for your finances, bad for your retirement goals, bad for relationships, and frankly, bad for you health. Having a constant burden of wondering when or if you'll ever achieve financial freedom places a toll on your well being. Being stressed has been medically proven to lead to other ailments, including heart disease and depression. There are ways to get out of debt, some ways are quicker than others, but the goal is to be debt free, so that you can even get to an age where you can actually retire. 

The first step to achieving financial freedom is to get a grip on all the debts and get an understanding of where you really stand financially. Some individuals may look to bankruptcy as the best avenue to achieve financial freedom, while others may not qualify for bankruptcy and require debt settlement instead. Whatever the case may be, you need a plan and you need to execute the plan. Once a plan of action is establish, you're one step closer to achieving financial freedom and ridding yourself of all the stress and heartache that comes along with it.