Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Understanding the Importance of Monitoring Your Credit

By Susan Carter

Have you looked at your personal and business credit reports lately? Do you know if everything on them is being reported accurately? If you are to be a successful businessperson, it is vital that you make a habit of checking your credit history.

Its not difficult. Financial institutions look at your credit record when you try to obtain funds for your business, such as applying for a line of credit. If youve not made an ongoing effort to be sure your credit is being reported accurately, and negative items show up on the reports, then these lenders will view you as being unable to manage your debts well and may just decide not to trust you with their money or their leased equipment. The best method to be sure this doesnt happen is to check your credit reports regularly and be sure that everything is accurate.

Heres what you should watch for:

Items that should not be there. There are two things that you want to make sure aren't on your report. Items that you have cleared up previously and items that never should have been there in the first place. If you previously had a negative mark on your credit report, but have been working to clear it up, you should always keep the paperwork showing the effort you made to correct this problem. All reporting agencies have a high error rate. There could easily be items on your record that were not yours, but somehow were put on your record in error. The sooner you notice them, the sooner you can have them removed. Anything that should be there. If you have positive credit such as paid off loans or other large debts in good standing, then you want to be sure these appear on your credit record. It is important that your credit history includes on-time, paid debts because when companies are considering extending your business a line of credit, they will evaluate you by the amount of current outstanding debt as well as previous debt that you have satisfactorily paid off. Is it your history? Nowadays, with identify theft running so rampant, it is not just individuals who have to keep an eye on their credit report. An identity thief can just as easily steal the financial information for your company and begin a shopping spree under your company name. Verify that all the items showing on your credit report belong to your company " whether or not it is positive or negative. Take a few minutes when you are reviewing your credit to be sure all the activity that is showing are accounts you have opened through your company. Don't hesitate to call on anything that looks suspicious. You may just not recognize a name, but it is far better to ask than to risk a bad situation that will only get worse.

About the Author:

No comments:

Post a Comment