Protect Your Credit Score!

What's your credit score? I have asked that to many people and few people have the answer. I used to ask how is your credit and most of the time the answer would be "good", followed by "I did have a couple of problems, but they are all cleared up now". Guess what? Those "problems" still show up on your credit history. I am not going into what a credit report is or who the reporters are, but for now just know they exist. Credit reports contain a record of past and current financial conduct. If you failed to pay a bill it will, most likely, show on your credit report. If you pay late, that will show. If you apply for a loan and a credit report is pulled it will show on your credit report. All of those things, including the amount of debt, tax leins , accounts that have gone into collections and bankruptcy will be included on the report. The point is your financial conduct is being tracked. You can't walk away from creditors or other bills owing. It will follow you for many years. I once had a customer that had disputed a payment to a retailer for just under $10.00. The retailer was wrong, but it wasn't fixed. It was on his credit report and he was declined a loan. Your are allowed one free credit report a year at annualcreditreports.com website. If you already have a low credit score you need to take action to boost it up. Start paying on time, pay old debts (get a letter from the debtor stating it is paid) stop applying for credit. You have to work at it. I would not advise a credit repair agency unless they can prove they have a working model of a time machine. They can fix incorrect entries, but so can you. They can't make correct entries go away that is "history" and they can't change that.