Do I need to check my credit report?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) June 3, 2010 -- If any items in your credit report seem out of date to you or appear to indicate a misleading picture of your intention or ability to repay a loan, mortgage or even a credit card, it may affect your chances of locating the best deal in the market. It may even lead to total rejection by lenders.

e.g. you may be separated from your partner who continues to get themselves into debt. This can adversely affect your credit rating if you still have a joint account. Your partners payment pattern will be linked to your credit rating. You will not have the ability to see any details of their credit report however you will be able to see an association with them on yours.

You may have even shopped around for the best offer on the market without realising that this too will affect your credit rating. A loan applicant who has shopped around will indicate to a lender that they may be desperate for money and will be seen to be applying for loans “left, right and centre”. You will be flagged by potential lenders as being desperate for money or it may even indicate to them that you have intentions to commit fraud.

It may be the case that your identity has been stolen and you find loans and applications that you did not submit yourself and have been carried out fraudulently.

Many types of behaviours will have some effect on your credit rating. Typically habits such as late payments, not being on the electoral role, moving address frequently, applying for multiple funding facilities (loans and credit cards) in a short space of time will all NEGATIVELY affect your credit rating.

This is a two way street and if you take care of your existing lending facilities and make sure they are paid on time, being registered on the electoral role as well as staying at the same address for a longer period of time will all have a POSITIVE affect on your rating.

The better your credit report, the lower the cost your lending facilities will be (i.e. a better APR on loans and credit cards). You will also be opened up to a wider range of lenders such as prime lenders rather than being limited to only the sub prime market. It is becoming harder and harder to gain access to quality prime lenders so keeping you credit report in order is extremely beneficial.

There are two types of people that will be greatly affected by the recent credit crunch:

1. Home Owners with a variable mortgage rate will have undoubtedly already seen their monthly payments rise.

Home owners with a fixed rate mortgage will not yet have seen the affect on their monthly payments.

This is particularly unfortunate to fixed rate mortgage customers as when their mortgage draws to an end they will need to locate another one. Whichever mortgage they obtain in the future they will see a vast increase in monthly payments. The only way to try and control the amount of increase is making your credit report more desirable to potential lenders. As mentioned this will open you up to a wider range of lenders offering mortgage facilities at a lower APR.

2. Sub prime lenders as well as near prime lenders will also find it very difficult to gain suitable funding source as many lenders have ceased to operate in the sub prime market place.

Sub prime mortgage rates (who already have a high APR) will also continue to increase the cost of facilities they offer. There will be an extreme effect on borrowers with low incomes who can not afford to repay the increased repayments.

If you find yourself a borrower of a sub prime or near prime lender then you will certainly need to keep a close eye on your credit report as locating new mortgage facilities in the current credit crunch will be extremely difficult for you.

If you regularly check your online credit report you will be able to make sure everything is in order and it will give you the best chance of gaining credit or loans in the future.

You are able to locate many financial products at www.BankFrank.com

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