Debt Consolidation Credit Counseling In Phoenix

Before you qualify for a loan or a credit line from any source, the lender will be sure to check your credit history. When you receive "pre-approved" credit card offers in the mail, you can be sure that the company offering you the card has checked your credit first. If credit check s or inquiries are run too often on you, however, it can damage your credit history and limit your ability to borrow money or be charged a low interest rate.

There are two types of credit checks or credit inquiries and only one of them has any effect on your credit history. Those credit inquiries that you authorize (when you apply for a loan, mortgage, or revolving credit) appear on your credit report and affect your score.

The more you apply for credit, the more inquires that will be done, and the lower you credit score will go. It is wise to limit your credit applications because of the results they will have on your credit history.

Of course, it is always wise to look at various offers to find the best loan possible. When many mortgage or car loan related credit checks are run within thirty days of each other they are counted as one single inquiry instead of several separate ones. Consumers who are wise enough to shop around for a good loan are no longer punished on their credit history.

The other credit inquiries are those made by business that you have not authorized to get your information. Anyone with a permissible purpose (defined by the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act) has the ability to check your credit history ? without you even knowing about it.

Companies that have the legal authorization to run a credit check on you include retail stores and credit card companies. They want you to open credit lines with them, so they do credit inquiries in order to offer you preapproved cards. Even though these credit checks do not affect your credit history, they do appear so that you can find out who has been inquiring about your credit.

Another credit check that does not do any damage to your credit history is a check done by a prospective employer before they choose to hire you.

All credit checks done by businesses are reported so that you can be aware of them. Only the credit checks that you authorize by applying for credit lines and loans are able to damage your credit history.