Your Credit Rating and How to Check It

Written by David Miles


There is a lot of confusion surrounding UK credit ratings, credit scores, credit blacklists, credit reports, and credit files. This guide to your credit rating aims to give yourepparttar facts you need.

What's in a Credit File

There are two major credit reference agencies inrepparttar 112316 UK, Equifax and Experian, who maintain credit files on virtually every adult inrepparttar 112317 country.

Almost all companies that give you credit terms will supply information to one or both of these two credit agencies.

Therefore, your credit file is likely to contain information on all your existing credit and loan arrangements, such as personal loans, mortgages, credit and store cards, bank accounts, etc. In addition, your credit record will contain information on any late or missed payments andrepparttar 112318 amount ofrepparttar 112319 original debt still outstanding.

The credit reference agency files also contain electoral roll information for your address and court records relating to you. It is this information which allows prospective lenders to confirm your address and also see if you have any outstanding CCJs.

Whenever a mortgage lender or other company is assessing an application for credit, they will checkrepparttar 112320 details held on you by Equifax and/or Experian. The reason they do this is because, by law, they are not allowed to request any information about you from any other companies with whom you have a credit agreement.

Also, by contacting one of these two agencies they can gain access to your entire credit history with just a single request rather than having to gatherrepparttar 112321 information from multiple sources.

Each time a lender makes a search of your credit file, that search will be recorded and added to your file, leaving a credit check "footprint". Therefore, it is easy for a prospective lender to see if someone has been "shopping around" for credit, and this in itself could be a deciding factor in whether or not they agree to give you a mortgage.

Your credit file will also include details of other people living at your address if they are financially linked to you, or ifrepparttar 112322 credit reference agencies think they are financially linked to you. In this way, other people's bad credit history can sometimes drag down your credit score. But if you find you are wrongly linked to another individual, you can write to Experian and Equifax and ask them to correctrepparttar 112323 mistake.

How can I see my credit file and correct any mistakes?

Underrepparttar 112324 terms ofrepparttar 112325 Data Protection Act,repparttar 112326 credit reference agencies Equifax and Experian are required to provide you with a copy ofrepparttar 112327 information they hold on you in return for a small administration fee. Atrepparttar 112328 time of writing (2004)repparttar 112329 fee for each agency is £2.

Your details are supplied by post, but you can request a copy of your file by telephone, post or email. Details or how to apply can be found onrepparttar 112330 Equifax and Experian websites.

How much house can you afford?

Written by Syd Johnson


Your mortgage calculator says: probably a lot less than your mortgage banker says you can.

Sometimes you can qualify for a loan but you should not accept it. Why? The monthly payments are more than you can afford. There are lots of laws in place atrepparttar state and federal level to protect customers against predatory lending, but there are still many customers around who will find that six months to a year into their loan they might have to give up their house. They cannot affordrepparttar 112315 upkeep, insurance and mortgage payments.

Your mortgage banker is giving you an estimate of how much they think you can afford, typically based on raw numbers such as your credit score, income, and available cash. What is not included in this equation isrepparttar 112316 human factor: Your spending habits. One way to quickly look into your financial future is to use a mortgage calculator.

Take an independent inventory of your financial situation before you approach your mortgage broker, then compare your list to what is offered by your mortgage lender. If a projected payment schedule feels uncomfortable perhaps you can reworkrepparttar 112317 numbers. For example: They think that you are able to pay $3500 per month for your mortgage, but you would really feel more comfortable with $2500 per month. Maybe you can give a larger down payment and then make smaller monthly payments forrepparttar 112318 life ofrepparttar 112319 loan. The idea is to confront your hidden fears about how you spend your money, and how you plan to spend it inrepparttar 112320 future.

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