subject: Have You Ever Checked Your Credit Ranking? [print this page] Credit reports began as a way for lenders to gather the payment records of customers. Loan companies could then utilize those payment histories to find out whether to give loan to consumers and under what terms. With developments in technology and the growth of the credit score, credit reports have grown to be more essential.
Credit reports are kept by a number of different companies. However, the three major credit bureaus are Transunion, Experian and Equifax. Credit reports from one or maybe more of these three companies are utilized in many financing decisions in America today.
In order for a credit history to be helpful to a lender, it needs to be an accurate and complete record of a lender's borrowing history. To reach that goal, creditors record different information to the credit reporting agencies during the life of a loan. Details are delivered digitally by banks, mortgage businesses and other lenders. The bureaus then take that information and compile it in a standard format.
It is important to understand that credit reports are made by the voluntary reporting of credit data by lenders. There is no central clearing house of info and credit bureaus don't go get information from the loan companies. Rather, lenders send the data to the credit bureaus when they decide to do so.
Most lenders batch together data. Multiple clients and loan types are categorized together and then reported all at once. This is really important to understand because if you pay off your credit card on the 14th, for example, that data might not be reported to the credit agencies until the next batch report is sent from the financial institution, probably on the 29th of the month.
Likewise, the lender reports data from a particular time and date. For example, if your charge card has a $1,000 balance on the 8th, is paid out off on the 15th, and then is utilized for a $500 purchase on the 26th, the info on your credit report for that month could say that you have a balance of $1,000, $0 or $500, dependant on which day's data is reported.
