Credit Reports

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's complaint website already gave Americans a way to seek redress over problems with credit cards, mortgages, bank accounts, auto or personal loans, even student loans. Now, it's also ready to help us deal with credit reporting agencies.

It's not hard to get copies of your credit report: You can even get them free from the major credit-reporting agencies. But each one of us has more than one credit score, and the one you're given may be very different from the ones lenders and other businesses actually use.

It has never been more important to have good credit, but it's no easy task to go against the ratings agencies when your credit report is wrong. Now though, you have an ally in your corner: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Credit reporting agencies will soon be subject to federal oversight for the first time. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced Monday that it will begin supervising the nation's biggest consumer reporting agencies this fall.

Managing credit correctly requires a certain amount of discipline -- otherwise, it's easy to slip into big money trouble. That's why it's important to have some guidelines. Here are five rules everyone should follow.

Oops! You open your credit card statement and discover you forgot to make last month's payment. Or a collections agency calls about a bill you didn't even know you had. How bad is it? How much does a single late payment affect your credit score?

Why did banks give this little girl credit cards, home mortgages, and car and boat loans? And how did she keep getting them after defaulting time and time again? The answers should be a warning for every parent in America.

Americans are getting more educated about credit scores, and younger people are the most well-versed of all. But that doesn't mean there aren't some gaps in their knowledge. So what should you do to keep on top of your credit? Here are a few free tips.

It's not just politics that defines the differences between Republican-leaning "red states" and Democrat-leaning "blue states" -- and some of those differences may surprise you. For example, when it comes to credit scores, blue states are where the smart money is.

There must be something in the cheese: Four of the top 10 American cities for credit scores are in Wisconsin, and four more are in nearby Midwest states, according to a new analysis by Experian. But all is not sunny in the South, where the cities with the worst scores are concentrated.

In these shaky economic times, your credit score carries more weight than ever, which means building a credit history is vital. Paying bills on time is one thing that buffs up your score, but until now, paying your rent meant nothing. Credit bureau Experian and RentReporters.com are changing that.

So you first messed up your finances in your 20s, then made matters worse in your 30s. But now you're ready to act your age, get serious about the business of fixing your credit and start writing your financial comeback story, right? Whether you went on a few too many credit card-fueled shopping...

When I wrote recently about five surprising things that hurt your credit scores – things like renting a car with a debit card or financing the purchase of furniture – many people were shocked to learn that innocent, everyday actions can wind up blemishing their credit reports. In...

We all know that making late payments or having credit card accounts in collections can hurt your credit scores. But you might be shocked to learn that a lot of other seemingly innocent actions can also negatively impact your credit rating. Here's a list of five surprising things that can lower...

Bad credit can limit your ability to get a loan or score a low-interest rate on a credit card, but that's not all it can do. It can also rear its ugly head in the workplace, making it harder for you to do your job or even -- in a frustrating catch-22 -- keep you from getting a job that could help...

If you're an even semi-regular WalletPop reader, you know the importance of a good credit score. Not only is it your golden ticket to getting better rates for things like mortgages and credit cards, it also may help you get lower rates for auto insurance, rent an apartment and even get a job. But...

Naomi Allen, a state government employee in Ohio, thought she was doing the "right thing" when her marriage dissolved in 2007. As the more financially savvy of the couple (she'd helped her then-husband raise his credit score several years back after discovering it was too low to qualify for a...