Thread by @MsGillyJ

Do you know what your credit score is? Have you ever accessed one of your free credit reports?

Imagine you applied for a loan & thought everything was ok until they said that you can't qualify because of your credit score.

Let’s talk credit reports.. A thread
#FinanceTwitterJa

If you have been denied a loan because of your credit report, the most you can do is go to other financial institutions that lend to high risk customers, but you will likely pay a higher interest rate for them taking a bigger risk by lending to you.

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What could have caused your credit score to be low?

- A previous loan you forgot/neglected to repay,
- Constantly repaying loans late (not by agreed time)
- High credit card debt
- Lack of sufficient credit history
- Too many loan applications in short succession

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To avoid arriving in this situation in the 1st place I have a few recommendations.

In the event that you need help paying for school, buying a car, buying a home or even if you need to guarantee someone else’s loan, most lenders will run a check of your credit history.

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In Jamaica, Credit Bureaus are fairly recent (the Credit Reporting Act was passed in Aug 2010 and data sharing started in 2013) so companies often use the entire credit report to make decisions about your repayment history and your ability to repay a loan.

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Some will use key pieces of information from each report to make a decision on your credit worthiness.

In Jamaica, we have three Credit Bureaus CRIF, Credit Info and Credit Information Services. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report each twelve months.

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You can send the request for CRIF via email (notarized), but for Credit Info and CIS you will have to go in office to request it.

The links for each are below.

jm.creditinfo.com/free-creditinf…
crif.com.jm/consumers-area…
credit.cisjamaica.com/contact/

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So what information is a credit officer going to see about you? Request your reports to know the specifics but in general your:

Name & date of birth
TRN
Last address & historical addresses
Cell number, email address
Employer & length of employment
.....

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...

- Any loans guaranteed or any co-applicants
- Credit limit on credit cards
- Seven (7) years of payment history and patters (whether you paid your loans on time or you were late)
- No. of inquiries done (i.e. how many credit reports have been pulled)
- Your credit score

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Each bureau will have different ranges for your credit score but generally categorized as:

Low Risk (a higher score)
Good - Fair Risk -(an average score(
High Risk - (a low score)

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In an articled entitled “Jamaicans Urged to Take Credit Scores Seriously” CEO of Credit Info Craig Stephen indicates 5 factors used to calculate a credit score:

Payment history
Debt balance
Age
Types of credit accounts &
No. of inquiries about the person’s credit history

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As of Apr 2019, Credit Info indicates that it is receiving information from 51 different providers. These would primarily include financial institutions but in 2014 the bureaus were granted access to collect data on repayment history of utilities including telecoms, light & water

Each bureau collects information from different institutions so it is best to check the reports from all of them to ensure that you know what is represented on each.

The banks often do the same.

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My recommendations:
A. If you ever apply for a loan its best you request your report before. There may be things on the report that are erroneous (e.g. a loan paid off that is still shown as current) and it is your responsibility to ensure that they are fixed.

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B. If you have multiple identities or supply fraudulent data to your lender you will be in problems. If you can’t be identified it will be more difficult to assess your credit worthiness. Some bureaus check your info against fraud databases as well to see if you have been flagged

C. If you don’t pay your loans ON TIME you will be negatively affected. You have a contractual agreement about when you are required to repay a loan. If you don’t honor that contract, it will be noted on your credit report and bring down your score.

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D. If you have no credit history you will be negatively affected. A low balance credit card is a good way to start building your credit history if you are young, but be responsible and pay in full each month.

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E/ If you visit multiple institutions in short succession, your score will go down. My advice, understand the loan terms for each potential institution (interest rates, expected repayments, length of the loan etc.) and use a loan calculator to determine if you can afford it 1st.

Again, go get your free credit report now, especially if you are in the market for a car, house or personal loan.

Visit my full article on this here: gillianajackson.com/credit-reports…

CRIF has a sample report on their site here: crif.com.jm/media/405707/c…