The Big Bad Credit Check
For most people, a credit check is nothing to be afraid of. In fact most of the time the person is so unconcerned about it that they barely take notice when one occurs. However, for the other portion of the population, perhaps the unluckier portion, a credit check can be a nightmare. It could be the difference between driving to work in a new, reliable car or making another trip to the office in a car that consistently breaks down and looks as if it belongs in a junkyard. But exactly who and why perform a credit check and what can you do to make the process of having a credit check run on you less stressful?
The good news about the whole ordeal is that no one can perform a credit check on you without your permission. This does not however, shield you from credit agencies who collect information on individuals and put together reports and findings to better evaluate your credit score. It does under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, require any realtor or employer to get your written permission to run a credit check on you. It also bars any individual from receiving a credit check on other individual for privacy reasons. However if you ever want to get a loan or enter into any lease or contract where anything of real value is involved, expect a credit check to be performed.
Why do some people hate credit checks so much? It's simply because they have bad credit. For some it's legitimately earned and they are rightfully turned down as soon as the lender or contract holder discovers this fact. For others though, bad credit is simply a thing of the past and that time in their life hasn't faded far enough into the distance for their credit to properly heal. That's right, even though they no longer pose as a risk to lend to, because of a poor track record in the past which no longer applies, they will commonly be turned down for a lease or a loan when their credit history is brought up through a credit check. The unfortunate truth about it is that lenders have no real way of distinguishing which of the above the person may be and because of this is forced to turn both people down.
So what can you do to relieve the stress of a credit check? Simply improve your credit history. While you can't always get bad marks removed from the record, commonly you can negotiate with credit agencies to remove certain types of flags if they meet the criteria, such as being of a certain age or having a certain amount of good payments in a row. If you can't seem to get anything removed the next step of action is to try to improve your credit score rather quickly. Or you can simply wait it out and wait for the period of bad credit to fade into obscurity, which usually means it is about two to five years in the past, depending on the severity of the infraction. No matter the situation you don't have to fear a credit check any longer. Even if it's not possible to improve your credit history, simply knowing when and who can perform a credit check will take a load off your chest. Be rational and polite and perhaps even those who fear a credit check can get by.
Credit Scoring
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