Tag Archives: CreditRating

Previous blogs have discussed why your credit scores can decrease. Unpaid bills, excessive use of credit and identity theft can significantly lower your credit scores. However, there are also factors that do not affect your credit scores. Factors that would not affect your credit score include: Checking your scores or reports. You can pull your free credit reports from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian once per year. In addition, many private services allow you to check your scores. Your credit scores are not affected if you are the one pulling the information. However, your scores could be minimally affected if a lender does a “hard pull” on your credit history. Using your debit card. Your credit scores are not affected by using a debit card. Only credit utilization is considered by your credit reports (and therefore your scores). However, your credit could be affected if you overdraft a debit card and…
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As of July 1st, the three credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Experian and Equifax) will no longer include civil judgments and tax liens on credit reports unless they contain accurate identifying information for affected consumers. Unless this data contains a Social Security number, date of birth, name and address, it will not be listed on the report. These credit bureau changes will affect millions of Americans. According to a study conducted by Fair Isaac Corporation, the company that created the widely-used FICO models, 7 percent of the 220 million Americans with credit files will see their scores increase. An estimated 96 percent of civil judgments and 50 percent of tax liens will be removed from credit reports. Civil judgments are what you owe after losing a lawsuit. Tax liens are a claim against one or more assets. The government may place a lien on these assets if you have failed to…
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