Personal Documents You Need to Take to the Bank

1. A Copy of Your Credit Report

[p]Before you take your funding request to a bank, check your credit rating and find out your credit score. The higher your credit score and the better your credit rating, the more favorably you will be regarded by the bank. To get your credit rating:[br] [ul][li]Go to one of the websites the offers free credit reports. A good one is [link url=http://www.annualcreditreport.com] www.annualcreditreport.com [/link], which allows you to receive a free credit report each year. You can receive a report from each of the three top credit reporting agencies, [link url=http://www.experian.com] Experian [/link], [link url=http://www.tuc.com] TransUnion [/link], or [link url=http://www.equifax.com] Equifax [/link][br][br]

2. Review Your Credit Report and Fix Errors or Problems

[li]Review your credit report to see if there are errors or old negative reports that can be removed to increase your credit rating. Then use the "dispute resolution" process of the reporting agency to get those negatives removed.[br][br] [li]Take your credit report with you to the bank. This may save you from having the bank run a credit report on you.[/ul][br]