I am new to the board and was wondering about obtaining my credit report from the 3 reporting agencies. I had them checked over two years ago with no surprises or huge problems. (other than my own debt). I am down to 22K in cc debt and am putting $1100 a month towards it. Haven't been delinquent on anything. Hopefully it will all be gone in less than two years! As my income increases, I put more towards the debt. I would like to try to get a lower interest rate (I am currently at 15.9.) But don't want to apply and have it negatively reflect on my report. Should I have my credit reports checked again? How often should one get them checked? Thanks for any ideas.
I would check them again. In today's society, you can't be too careful of identity theft. Secondly, a large average (I've seen numbers ranging from 50-75%) of all credit reports have errors. If you find no errors, you have no recent lates, sometimes it is possible to get cc companies to reduce your interest. Good luck!
I agree...you should stay on top of your credit reports. You stated 'maybe I should HAVE my credit reports checked".... a note of caution...you should check them YOURSELF so that you don't incur hard inqs which can have a negative impact on your scores. My esperience with CC companies is that if you ask for a rate reduction or a limit increase, they pull an AR (acct review) which is a 'soft' inq and does not hurt your score. New applications, however, DO incur a hard. Best of Luck Stay on the board...this is a GREAT community !! Mark
