October 2015 – The importance of checking your credit
With all of the security breaches happening nowadays, no one is safe anymore. Having solid credit reports, which means you’ll also have solid credit scores, is no different than picking the right stock or mutual fund. It’s a wealth building tool. Paying less interest on a loan saves you money every month, guaranteed.
And right now is a great time to be on the “buyer’s” side of the credit equation. Auto loan rates are as low as zero percent for some models. Credit card issuers are throwing around zero percent introductory and balance transfer rates as long as you’ve got good credit. And while mortgage rates have gone up over the past several months, you can still get a 30-year fixed rate mortgage at or near four percent, which is not far from the lowest they’ve ever been in the history of mortgage lending.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, between 10 and 21 percent of consumers have confirmed errors on their credit reports. To put that number into perspective, 10 to 21 percent of consumers equals 60 million credit reports on the low end to 126 million on the high end, since we each have three. And what’s worse, most people who have errors on their credit reports don’t even know it.
If only 25 million credit files are claimed every year and at least 60 million are known to have errors, then there are 2.4 times more erroneous credit files than there are credit files that have been claimed by consumers per Federal law, and that’s the best case scenario. The worst case scenario has over five times more erroneous credit files than there are credit files that have been claimed by consumers per Federal law.
Bottom line? Claim your credit reports! Do it more than once every 12 months! They’re simply too important to turn your back on them. And, given that 10 to 21 percent of you who are reading this have errors on your credit reports it’ll be an exercise not only in pulling your credit reports, but also in getting them corrected.