Frequently Asked Questions

Credit is when one party (the lender or creditor) gives money to another party (the debtor) who is then expected to pay it back at a later date, usually with a set amount of interest added to it. This often takes the form of credit cards or loans.

A credit score is a number used to measure how trustworthy you are in regards to paying back money you have borrowed (credit). It is expressed as a number between 300 and 850, with higher being better. Potential creditors will use this number to gauge whether they can trust you with a new credit card or loan.

Your credit score is determined by a number of factors, including but not limited to: payment history and card balances, age of credit, variety of accounts, and available credit.

There are three different credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) that use different equations to determine your credit score. You can find all of these scores on your credit report.

Your credit report is a summary of your credit history and includes factors such as lines of credit or loans you have been given (both paid off and still open), details on whether you have been late paying off said loans or if you paid them on time, bankruptcies, a list of creditors who have asked to look at your credit report–these are known as inquiries–and personal information such as your name (or names you have had in the past),  current and past addresses, and your birth date.

There are plenty of websites that can provide you with your credit report, though those services usually require a small fee. However, the three bureaus are required by law to provide you with one free credit report a year which you can get from this website: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

You can improve your credit score by maintaining a good payment history on your credit cards and loans, that means paying off what you owe on time and in full every month. Have a variety of credit types on your account with lots of available credit that are not fully utilized. Avoid bankruptcies, and minimize the number of lending institutions that view your credit report (known as inquiries).

Fix Your Credit Consulting and its team of credit specialists have years of experience helping our clients remove negative items from their credit reports (these are items that bring their credit score down) while helping them plan ways to improvetheir credit scores to meet their financial goals

We start with a free consultation in which we review a credit report you provide for us. From there we come up with a personalized plan to improve your scores and to attack the negative items. Refer to our How It Works page for more information.