The popular saying goes that "A man who can manage his
finance well can also manage his life well". A person's credit
report is a proof of how organized a person is in his
financial arena. It is a very important document based on
which a person is eligible to apply for loans. Thus it is very
important to maintain a clean credit report, especially at a
time when the country is diseased with debts. A good credit
report helps a person to take a loan in the building of his
assets. But at times there are some mistakes in the credit
report which transforms a person's life as well as his
financial status.
This can also happen so that a person becomes a victim for
the inaccurate credit information in the credit report. In
such cases there is a stipulated time for the reporting
period, which is generally seven years. There is a standard
method for calculating the seven-year reporting period.
Generally, the period runs from the date that the event took
place. But there are a few exceptions to this rule too.
With regard to any delinquent account placed for
collection-internally or by referral to a third-party debt
collector, whichever is earlier-charged to profit and loss or
subjected to any similar action, the seven-year period is
calculated from the date of the delinquency that occurred
immediately before the collection activity, charge to profit
and loss or similar action. For example, assume that your
payments on a loan were late in January, but that you caught
up in February. You were late again in May, but caught up in
July. You were again late in September, but did not catch up
before the account was turned over to a collection agency in
December. You made no more payments on the account and it is
charged to profit and loss in July of the following year.
Under the FCRA, each
of the January and May late payments can be reported for seven
years. The collection activity and the charge to profit and
loss can be reported for seven years from the date of the
September payment, which was the delinquency that occurred
immediately before those activities.
However there are exceptions to this seven years reporting
act. In cases like bankruptcy, criminal conviction, student
loan insured by the US government, information about a lawsuit
or unpaid judgment and credit information reported in response
to an application for a job with a salary of more than $75,000
has no time limit.
But even after knowing the pros and cons of maintaining a
good credit report we tend to fall in the trap of debts. You
may have debt problems for illness, education and your home
loans or even for careless spending. But whatever the reason
one should strive to get free from it. It is not an impossible
task at all. In the present era debt
consolidation is undoubtedly the best way to get you free
from debts.