Did you know there are 3 National Credit Bureaus keeping credit files on you and these credit bureaus DO NOT share information? Did you know that different lenders look at different credit reports? The only way for you to know if your credit is being judged fairly is to obtain a report for yourself. and find out exactly what the credit bureaus are saying about you. Here is an interesting article on credit:

Clean Up Your Credit Report
By John Report
LA News

As is the case with many U.S. consumers, Dianne Solano had errors on her credit report.

Dianne Solano of Executive Mortgage hired a credit repair agency when she needed help cleaning up errors on her credit reports.

Her ex-husband's post-divorce bankruptcy appeared as her own.

A $205 medical bill for the time her daughter was bitten by a dog had been paid by a lawsuit judgment, yet it was listed as a forced collection. Closed credit lines were listed as open and active. The collection alone pushed her credit score from a very respectable 705 to an embarrassing -- and expensive -- 599 on one report, she said. Solano, a 42-year-old mortgage lender with Executive Mortgage, had tried unsuccessfully to correct her reports.

"I'm in the lending industry, and so I know the value of a clean report," Solano said. "I tried -- but I'm on the phone all day long, and the bureaus tell people separate things. You could do it if you had time, but most of us don't have the patience."

So Solano did what an increasing number of people are doing: She hired a credit repair agency.

Credit repair companies, which often are lenders or debt consolidators, offer to remove inaccurate, old and unwanted information from credit reports for a fee of $400 to $600. Such companies have proliferated during the economic downturn, yet their services are controversial.

The Federal Trade Commission warns people against paying to have changes made to their credit reports, since they often get scammed or dragged into illegal activity, such as changing tax identification numbers or Social Security numbers.

And credit bureaus say credit-repair companies flood their systems with unnecessary paperwork. One of the three major bureaus, TransUnion, estimates that credit repair companies account for more than a third of all disputes.

At times, even consumers have challenged credit repair agencies. The then-largest credit repair agency, Michigan-based ICR Services, which owned National Credit Repair, agreed last August to refund $5.5 million, about 42 percent of fees it charged customers, in an Alabama class-action lawsuit. The New York Consumer Board went after California-based ClearCredit.com, previously known as Junum

and later as CleanCredit.com, for not disclosing that it would automatically dispute every item on a credit report for a $5 fee per item. But some believe a good credit repair company can be useful.

"We work with a lot of disadvantaged credit," said Ron White, mortgage analysis counselor for KB Home's Homebuyers Club in San Antonio, Texas. "Some of it's old and not theirs. This way they can work to get a lot of the garbage off. After it's been deleted, we've very rarely had anything pop back up."

Credit bureaus say personal legwork is the best way to clean up credit reports. They recommend consumers pull credit reports and call to dispute questionable information. Also, bureaus recommend consumers educate themselves about debt.

One common misconception is that a divorce automatically alters the debts one must pay. Actually, lenders aren't legally bound to honor a divorce decree. Credit bureaus stress that they want their reports to be accurate.

"This is our product," said Rod Griffin, spokesman for Experian credit bureau. "If it's inaccurate we don't want it there because it undermines the whole lender system." Credit Reporting Legislation

The Fair Credit Reporting Act guarantees a free credit report if a debtor is denied credit for a derogatory entry a response from credit bureaus within 30 days or the disputed item must be removed from files a written response to a debtor's complaint from credit bureaus most derogatory items can be removed after seven years a debtor may attach a 100-word statement on a report regarding any item that is not resolved to his liking.

The Credit Repair Organizations Act requires credit repair companies to tell customers which services they can get for free give a written contract allow customers to cancel services up to three days after signing contract provide services before getting paid. To file disputes or complain about bureaus, contact: Experian, (888) 397-3742, www.experian.com; TransUnion, (800) 916-8800, www.transunion.com; Equifax, (800) 685-1111, www.equifax.com; Federal Trade Commission, (877) 382-4357, www.ftc.gov.