We all want the highest credit score so we can get the best interest rates, but do you know how to get there? Your credit report is the roadmap used to calculate that score, so you want to be sure that it accurately reflects your credit history.

When a creditor orders a credit report it's like a snapshot in time of your financial and personal life on a particular day. If all the information is accurate, then it should factually reflect your outstanding credit, your payment history, the status of your credit accounts, and any information that can be found in public records. But the same information pulled just a few days later could vary depending on when your creditors report their data about you each month.

The best way to find out what your creditors are seeing is to order a free copy from each of the credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You are entitled to one free report a year.

First Step: Check Your Identifying Information
When you do get a copy of your credit reports, the first thing you should check is the personal information section. You'll find the primary name for which you ordered the report, followed by a list of one or more former names. Women may have a particularly long list if they have been married several times.

Your Social Security number should not be shown in its complete form. You may find your number shown as a series of Xs (XXX-XX-XXXX). This is for your protection and safety.

Next you should find your current address followed by a listing of previous addresses. Be sure all the addresses shown correspond to addresses that you have had. The next section lists your employment history. Check to be sure the information accurately reflects your employment. The listing of a job you never had could be an indication that someone else's credit information has been merged with

By Lita Epstein, credit and debt expert, WalletPop.com

We all want the highest credit score so we can get the best interest rates, but do you know how to get there? Your credit report is the roadmap used to calculate that score, so you want to be sure that it accurately reflects your credit history.

When a creditor orders a credit report it's like a snapshot in time of your financial and personal life on a particular day. If all the information is accurate, then it should factually reflect your outstanding credit, your payment history, the status of your credit accounts, and any information that can be found in public records. But the same information pulled just a few days later could vary depending on when your creditors report their data about you each month.

The best way to find out what your creditors are seeing is to order a free copy from each of the credit reporting agencies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. You are entitled to one free report a year.

Next: First

First Step: Check Your Identifying Information
When you do get a copy of your credit reports, the first thing you should check is the personal information section. You'll find the primary name for which you ordered the report, followed by a list of one or more former names. Women may have a particularly long list if they have been married several times.

Your Social Security number should not be shown in its complete form. You may find your number shown as a series of Xs (XXX-XX-XXXX). This is for your protection and safety.

Next you should find your current address followed by a listing of previous addresses. Be sure all the addresses shown correspond to addresses that you have had. The next section lists your employment history. Check to be sure the information accurately reflects your employment. The listing of a job you never had could be an indication that someone else's credit information has been merged with
Second Step: Dig into the Dirt: Your Negatives
Hopefully you won't have any negatives, but if you do, it will be in the Negatives section on the report. This section can include derogatory public records (if you filed for bankruptcy, owe money because of a court judgment, lost a house to foreclosure, had your wages garnished, or have a Federal tax lien on your record), collections (any time you don't pay your bills on time and the creditor turns over your account for collections to a third party), and late payments or other problems.

Review all the information in the negative section very carefully for accuracy. If the information is correct, there isn't much you can do but wait it out. The good news is that even the worst of the negative information will not have a major impact on your credit score when you are at least three years past whatever caused the negative mark. Most negative information will be completely removed from your credit report in seven years.
Third Step: Get a Handle on Credit Inquiries
This section will include information about lenders or other interested parties, such as a utility company, who have viewed your report. The first list of inquiries, which includes the date of contact and the company that requested your information, are the hard inquiries. These are inquiries by companies to whom you have applied to for credit.

Some reports will include a second list of so-called soft inquiries. These are companies that pulled your credit history either for marketing purposes or to review your credit activity if you already have an existing account. This list will include the creditor and date of inquiry.

In addition to the two inquiry lists you'll also get detailed contact information for each company. If you see creditors with whom you are not familiar and to whom you never applied for credit, it is wise to contact them to find out why they checked your report.

The National Association of Realtors calculates official housing inventory statistics using data from the multiple listing services. By that measure, there were 4.2 million existing homes for sale in November, an 11.2-month supply at the current sales pace, up from a 10.3 month supply in October.
But now it seems quite possible that these figures, which are already at record highs, are underestimating the situation. And if that's the case, it could take much longer for the housing market recover than analysts currently expect.
Until supply can be brought down to a more normalized level of six to seven months, home prices will continue to come under pressure, according to Yun.
"It could be a worse problem than we think," he said.

The chief problem is probably system overload: Lenders are just not prepared to handle the sheer numbers of foreclosures that they have on their books. Banks took back about 860,000 in 2008 - more than twice the number in 2007 - according to RealtyTrac. Before the housing crisis hit, it took only about a month to get a bank-owned foreclosure on the market.
Lenders still insist they try to act as swiftly as possible. According to Tom Kelly, a spokesman for Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) Mortgage, their goal is to cut their losses on these homes, which are expensive to maintain, as fast as possible.
But banks might hold back listings in areas where they already have lots of homes for sale in order to avoid flooding the market, according to Michael Youngblood, a financial analyst and founder of Five Bridges Capital, an asset management company.

When a creditor orders a credit report it's like a snapshot in time of your financial and personal life on a particular day. We all want the highest credit score so we can get the best interest rates, but do you know how to get there? Your credit report is the roadmap used to calculate that score, so you want to be sure that it accurately reflects your credit history.

1.Your credit cards or other bills don't arrive when you expect them.

A thief could have changed your address with a financial institution and started using your credit card. Since the bills are no longer coming to your address, it will take longer for you to figure out the problem. Most financial institutions allow you to look at your accounts online. Do so regularly to avoid this problem. If you see charges you don't recognize, call your bank's customer service line immediately.

2.You start to receive credit cards for accounts you didn't open yourself.

A thief may have responded to a credit card offer using your name and credit history and been planning to intercept the card from your mailbox.

Don't hesitate one second. Call the financial institution that issued the card immediately and explain that the account was opened fraudulently.

3.You are denied credit even though you know you have a good credit history.

Whenever you are denied credit -- for whatever reason -- you are entitled to free copies of your credit reports from each of the three top credit reporting agencies; Equifax, Experian anA thief may have responded to a credit card offer using your name and credit history and been planning to intercept the card from your mailbox.

Don't hesitate one second. Call the financial institution that issued the card immediately and explain that the account was opened fraudulently.

4.You get a call from a store about a purchase you know you didn't make.

If you do get this type of call, don't give out any information because the call could be a phishing attempt (that's when thieves pretend to be calling or emailing from a store or bank in hopes you will disclose personal financial information – like your Social Security number or bank account password).

Find out as many details about the purchase as you can, as well as the caller's name and contact information. Look up a contact number yourself. Call the company after you've checked it out. Only after you know the company is legitimate should you give out any personal information. Then, call your credit card company and let them know that your card was used fraudulently.

5.Any time you suspect fraud you should place a fraud alert with all three credit reporting agencies. They will place a 90-day alert on your account, which can be extended. They will also send you a copy of your report to be sure there aren't other problems. These are the contact numbers to report fraud:

DO YOU KNOW WHAT ON YOUR CREDIT?????? DO YOU HAVE CREDIT BLOCK??????? ARE YOUR SCORES LOW???? DO YOU KNOW THE CREDIT COMPANYS SELL YOUR CREDIT???
You Could Be a Victim and Not Even Know It