Your Credit Score Impacts Your Life Everyday! Credit influences our daily lives in many ways, including our home and job. In this article we show how and when credit is applied. Enhance your credit for apartment rental , insurance quotes, utility accounts, your credit even affects you when trying to find your perfect job. Apartments & Your Rental History When applying for a new apartment rental your prospective landlord will review your credit report and look for patterns of missed payments or other negative reporting that could indicate that you may be a rental risk. Should your credit report reflect poorly you may be required to pay a larger deposit or possibly be turned down. Furthermore each time a prospective landlord runs your credit report it creates inquiries which can affect your credit score in a negative manner. Previously, landlords and rental agencies did not report to the credit bureaus, however there has been an effort to change this. More property agencies and landlords now are able to report positive rental history, which will in turn boost your credit rating. Should your landlord currently not report your rental history, you can request they use a service such as RentTrack which allows you to pay rental fees online. Then the rental payments can be reported to your Experian credit report. Auto Loan Payments Your credit score can seriously influence auto loan rates that are available to you. Most auto lenders do not really review your credit reports and financial history in detail; instead, they rely solely on your score and some basic application data. Should you have a high credit score (750+), you should qualify for the best rates available (sometimes as low as 0%). However, people with major credit issues can usually be approved for an auto loan, but at much higher rates. The better auto loan rates are typically granted by online lenders and credit unions, not your local auto dealers. It is imperative to limit the number of loans applications you file since inquiries from auto loan applications can lower your credit score. Cell Phone Choices and Providers Cell phone companies also check your credit score before making a decision to grant you service. If you have credit issues you may be asked to put down a large down payment or pay larger monthly fees for a service contract. There are pre paid cell phone services available that do not require a credit check. Beware some contracts include verbiage that allows the company to review your credit at any point. As with auto loan applications and rental application running your credit for a cell phone will increase you inquiries and can lower your credit score. Checking Accounts History Banks typically will not check your credit report when applying for a checking or savings account. However, they do review your ChexSystems report before allowing you to open a new account. This report is not based on your credit report, but instead reports records of bounced checks or other derogatory banking history. Child Support Enforcement Agency Records Child support enforcement agencies may check the credit reporting and child support payment records of parents who are delinquent in paying child support. Unlike auto loan applications and rental applications this inquiry will not appear on your credit report and does not damage your credit scores. However child support non- payment is reported by these agencies to the credit bureaus. Non- payment can lower your credit scores. Credit Card Approvals and Costs When you apply for a new credit card, the company reviews your credit score to determine if you qualify for a card and what terms you should receive. Most credit cards offer different rate options for clients with different credit ratings. Some have special requirements for opening the account. Usually rewards cards and low APR cards require higher credit scores. Secured and pre-paid cards allow borrowers with credit problems to obtain a card. Credit card companies often review the credit scores of their existing customers and in turn may adjust their rates. Credit card application inquiries can lower your credit score. Employers Application Reviews Potential employers must have written permission from the applicant before they can review their credit report. Typically employers review the credit report for major negative records or discrepancies. If an employer chooses to take “adverse action” based on credit report information, they must notify you first and provide you with a copy of your credit report. Employers may also check the credit reports of existing employees, as long as they previously disclosed that they may take such action. When an employer checks your credit report it does not negatively affect your credit score. Government Assistance & Licensing Any government agency can access limited information about your credit files without your permission such as name, address, former addresses, current and former employer. However credit checks are usually required when applying for government assistance or specific licenses. Insurance Rates Home and auto insurance agencies are now using credit data along with your application information to determine rates and terms. The reports and scores used by the insurance industry are slightly different from what is used by creditors and lenders, but your basic data and standing should be the same. Once you have given permission, the insurance agent will pull your credit report and calculate your “insurance risk score.” The higher your score, the better your insurance rates may be. This credit inquiry will appear on your credit report but does not usually harm your credit score. Mortgages Rates Mortgage lenders review all three credit reports and credit scores as part of their application process. Since a mortgage loan is much larger than an auto or student loan, the review process is much more detailed. In order to receive the lowest mortgage interest rates, your credit scores should be above the 700 range. Mortgage applications do appear on your credit report and can lower your credit score. Student Loan Approval Federal student loans do not require a credit check. The interest rates for these loans are based on national rates. Also when you consolidate federal loans, the new lender will not check your credit report. Only with private student loans or specific situations may credit checks be required for student loans. Utility Accounts for Deposits Electricity, cable, and other utility companies may check your credit report with your permission to determine whether a deposit, or a co- signer, will be needed. Some with poor credit may pay higher rates for their utilities. Inquiries from utility applications do not harm your credit score.

Why the credit report dispute process is broken? Note: This is a great article from Creditcards.com that explains the process and why it is broken. Automated dispute system backfires on many consumers By Kelly Dilworth A federal law is supposed to guarantee that credit report errors get fixed. So why do some people wind up spending months or even years trying to remove legitimate errors that are ruining their credit? Take the case of Rahul Sharma of College Station, Texas. With theFair Credit Reporting Act in place, it should not have taken Sharma six years and a meeting with a lawyer to get errors ranging from bad Social Security numbers to accounts that weren't his erased from his credit report. But despite the decades-old consumer protection law, which guarantees consumers the right to get legitimate errors off their reports, Sharma fell through the credit reporting system's cracks. Representatives across the credit reporting and banking industry say that cases like Rahul Sharma's are rare. "Like anything, [the credit reporting dispute process] is not a perfect system," says Nessa Feddis, vice president and general counsel at the American Bankers Association. "Sometimes mistakes happen." However, consumer advocates and attorneys experienced with handling Fair Credit Reporting Act cases say that Sharma's hellish experience dealing with errors serious enough to deny him credit for more than half a decade is a perfect example of the problems they have been complaining about for years. The automated credit reporting dispute system used by the three major credit bureaus -- Experian, Equifax and TransUnion -- is broken, they say, and is causing too many consumers such as Sharma to miss out on the opportunity to apply for affordable credit, get a job in certain industries or avoid rate hikes on everything from apartment rentals to new cellphones. (Story continues below.)