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How Do I Know If I Have Bad Credit?
Many people know that having
bad credit may affect their lives in many negative ways but a lot of the people that have bad credit are unaware that their credit rating is as bad as it is. Personal credit status is not one of the things that people see on a frequent basis, so it is difficult for many people to determine whether or not they fall into the good, fair, or poor credit categories. There are several different ways that a person can use to determine their credit rating and where they fall on the credit worthiness scale.
The first way to attempt to determine where a person falls on the credit rating scale is credit estimation. Using this method, the person takes the amount of debt that they are carrying and their financial actions over the last several years to determine whether their actions have led to their credit score increasing or decreasing. For example, a person that has been able to pay off their credit cards, put some money in a savings account, and have not been late on any of their bills for the past several years can expect to have their credit rating increase while people that have missed some payments and have used more than 50% of their available credit can expect their credit rating to decrease, resulting in bad credit.
Although this method of determining whether a person has bad credit is imprecise, it will give the person a reasonable estimate of what their credit rating may be. As long as the person is honest about their actions over the past few years and accurately remembers how much of their available credit they are using, they may be able to correctly judge the credit worthiness level that they are currently at and whether they have bad credit. There are even some credit rating calculators available on the internet that will take this information and calculate what range your credit score is likely to fall into.
Another method of determining whether a person has bad credit is to obtain the person's actual credit history and score from a credit rating company. This can be difficult because the person will need to find a reputable place to obtain the credit information from and will have to verify their identity to the company before their personal credit information can be released. In some cases, it can take up to two weeks to obtain the information that the person is looking for because of the number of requests that these companies handle each day from businesses and individuals alike and if there is a problem with the information that is submitted, it can take even longer for the person to find out if they have bad credit.
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