The Equal Credit Opportunity Act says that all lenders will apply the same
credit standards to all the consumers no matter what their race, sex,
marital status, national origin, religion, age, or public assistance
program that is involved. This does not say for sure that the loan
approved or credit will be given to you. It will give you an equal chance
to obtain credit. The only good measurement for creditors to use is your
ability to pay the debts that you owe.

Many of the applications will have questions about some of the above
things. However you are not required to answer them on an application for
credit. These may be asked because of the fair housing laws or affirmative
action laws but these are at your discretion. You should not be asked
about your material status, unless your partner will help you secure the
loan. You may be asked your age because of the Equal Credit Opportunity
Act (more…)

A credit repot score is the basis used by lenders to determine if your loan application will be approved or not. If your credit report score is above 700, there wont be any problems and your loan will be granted with low interest rates. If however you score below this figure, you will be charged a higher interest rate and in the most extreme cases, they will not approve your loan application.

But how do creditors come up with this figure? Basically, they do this by reviewing credit related information such as your payment history to find out if you have ever had any late payments or filed for bankruptcy. They will also check how much money you owe not only on your credit (more…)

Copyright 2006 Richard Keir

Millions of Americans have sought and received a free credit report under the FACT Act amendments to the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

While there are a ton of online sites offering ‘free’ credit reports, there are really only three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian (which used to be TRW) and TransUnion.

If you go to one of their sites ( www.experian.com, www.equifax.com, www.transunion.com ). You’ll quickly discover that the “free” report they offer directly requires you to sign up, using a credit card, for a monthly service.

These monthly services offer you thirty days free – but you absolutely must remember to cancel your membership before the 30 days end or you will be charged.

Each (more…)

If you were to tell someone that they can have a certain item for free, more than likely their response would be, �what�s the catch?� In the case of credit reports there is no catch, you can now get a free copy of this report through the three credit reporting agencies: Equifax, TransUnions, and Experian. Let�s take a look at the law and how you can benefit from it.

An amendment to the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires the three national credit reporting agencies to provide one free copy of your credit report to you annually. Beginning on December 1, 2004 and culminating on September 1, 2005, the Federal Trade Commission is requiring that these agencies offer reports on a rolling, phase (more…)