Can Other People Lower My Credit Score?

by Jim Bransby

Your personal finances are really tied up with your credit score. Credit scores will determine whether youare approved for a loan, and if you are they will determine the interest rate youare charged on that loan. A good credit score will get you a nice home, and a poor credit score will get you rejected by banks time and time again. Notwithstanding, most people donat understand what a credit score is and where it comes from. Even fewer people know what impact credit scores truly have on their lives.

Even if you do all you can to improve your credit, the question still remains: Can others actions affect my credit score? Unfortunately, the answer is yes. The good news is that there are many actions you can take to limit the damage to your annual credit report.

Credit bureaus keep a lot of information on file, and this information is summarized as a number. This number is a credit score. The most commonly used one, the FICO score, is the sum of three such scores from three different credit bureaus. To find out what your FICO score is, you can use the myfico service.

Credit scores change over time, as they are continuously updated with new information about your accounts and credits. The amount of money you owe in total, as well as the kind of debt you have and your payment history goes into your credit scores. Pure length of credit history will have an effect as well.

The most critical issue is your payment history, as it impacts your credit score the most. One of the ways in which other people can damage your credit is if a company wrongly reports that you are delinquent in making on-time payments. This is more common that you would believe, and it can be a real fight to fix the damage done.

There are many people who can talk about how one mistake in a company’s accounting department gave them trouble for years, as they could not get the problem fixed with companies, debt collectors or credit bureaus. You do have the law on your side, though, so most of these issues are eventually resolved in the customer’s favor.

If you are surprised by the low credit score you have, itas worth your time to check up on the information about you that the credit bureaus are using to get to that number. Do they have any incorrect information about you? Usually youall already know if a company has been incorrectly reporting your payments. There can also incorrect information that is damaging your score.

So in summary, you arenat the sole controller of your credit score. The mistakes of others can certainly impact your credit, but the damage done is not permanent. You have recourse and you can fix your credit score when it has been lowered by other peoplesa mistakes.

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To find out exactly how you can get your annual credit report visit my credit report website.