If a person needs to find information about their credit report or credit score, it is usually a very simple and quick process. The actual process and possible cost however does depend on the country in which a person is searching and from which credit agency the information is requested.
The first option is to request a credit report from one of the major credit bureaus or agencies. These are organisations such as Experian and Equifax. Credit reports will differ between agencies as they use independent formulas to determine credit scores and often they may use differing scales of risk also. It is common to be able to receive a credit report via one of the main credit agencies online. The report contains detailed entries of credit activity, even from application that may have not been successful. By using algorithms from the credit history data, an overall rating is given to an individual within the report. This rating is usually a numerical figure or alphabetical grade where the higher the number or closer the letter to ‘A’ the better a persons credit score.
Due to the increased interest in personal credit ratings over recent years, which in turn is due to credit becoming more widespread and important (even some employers use credit history to check on employees), there has been a boom in the number of websites and companies offering personal credit information. These usually take an educated guess of a persons credit score from the results of a set of questions that a visitor is required to answer. They are quick, simple and precise but do not give a detailed explanation of a credit score. Here is one for the UK market:
http://www.checkmyfile.com/score.asp
This example scores a credit rating on a scale of 0 – 1000 where 750 is the average. Please note that the numerical value is higher on this test than the average from the main credit bureaus; however it can be a good indicator as to how ‘risky’ someone’s credit currently is.
There are many similar websites offering a quick and easy estimation on credit score, however it is advised if seriously looking to improve a credit rating to request a report from one of the major agencies.
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