Your Credit Report is Your Electronic Fingerprint.

You can't escape it. It will always precede you. It represents your reputation in the personal financial community. If it is solid, it can be one of your best assets. If it is damaged, it can be one of your biggest liabilities.

The sad truth is that the majority of Americans have never seen their credit reports, though their credit profile affects practically every aspect of their financial lives. Even more disturbing is that of those who have seen their credit reports, a significant number don't understand what they are reading.

Credit is not something to be feared, but rather a tool to help build financial security. It is simply a different kind of investment portfolio.

As more and more Americans put their funds into the stock and bond markets, it is not uncommon to see people hunched over the morning newspaper, watching one of the financial news networks, surfing the net checking out their portfolios or doing research, or pouring over their monthly investment statements. Unfortunately, few, if any, people realize that were they to dedicate just a fraction of the time they spend reviewing their investments to working on the development of a credit portfolio, they would dramatically enhance their ability to build the type of financial security they are striving for.

Think of your credit report as the equivalent of an investment statement. But just as you can't know your entire financial picture without reviewing statements from all of your investment accounts, you will not see your entire credit picture unless you read a report from each of the three (3) major credit reporting agencies (Experian, Trans Union and Equifax). Because just as Merrill Lynch doesn't share your account information with Etrade or Schwab, none of the three (3) national reporting agencies share information with each other. Therefore, simply seeing one, or two, credit reports may not give you the entire picture. You need to review all three.

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