How to Deal with Credit Reporting Agencies

Credit reporting agencies or credit bureaus collect and store your credit record and sell the information to financial institutions that are interested in learning about your credit history. As they hold the key to your credit rating learning how to deal with the three major credit bureaus is one of the best ways to protect your credit.

While you can live without good credit, a bad credit rating will certainly affect you negatively throughout your life. Keep in mind that this information is about you. You have the rights to obtain your report to make sure that it is accurate because accurate credit reporting is the beginning of a good credit score. /p>

The Three Credit Reporting Agencies

There are 3 major credit rating agencies that collect and assemble your credit record.  Here is a list of the organizations:

Equifax - www.equifax.com - Equifax offers products and services to protect against identity theft, to manage and check credit, and to prepare for a major purchase. They also provide tools for checking the value of a property, credit ranking, and the latest in business solutions.
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
1-800-685-1111

Experian - www.experian.com -  Experian also offers products and services to protect against fraud, to check 3-credit bureau reports, to check vehicle history (with a report), and to get further educated --understanding your credit.
P.O. Box 2104
Allen, TX 75013-0949
1-888-397-3742

Trans Union - www.transunion.com - Like the other bureaus, TransUnion offers products and services for credit monitoring, fraud-prevention education, and free credit card report disclosures.
P.O. Box 1000
Chester, PA 19022
1-800-916-8800 /p>

Disputing Your Credit Report Information

When you order a copy of your credit report the credit bureaus will send you a copy of your report. Once you receive them carefully go through the document to see whether there have been mistakes on your report. If you find errors contact the necessary agencies to get these corrected.

Make sure that you get the details of the person who is handling your request. Also, always remember to keep copies of all the correspondence you have in case there are problems again in the future.

When it comes to an important thing such as your financial position never assume that people have done their job correctly. Many consumer debtors reported paying higher interest charges for years simply because they were unaware that the errors on their credit reports giving them a lower rating.

So, if credit reporting companies make changes be sure that they are as same as your expectation. Sometimes just clearing up some of these errors and issues might be enough to allow you to improve your credit score. With updated credit reports you may then start evaluating your new financial status for further credit rating improvement.