Todays Mortgage Rates

US Federal law allows everyone to request a free credit file disclosure once a year, and such requests can be made electronically; however, the person should be cognizant over the potential for scams.  Emails and pop-up ads on the internet are generally scams; additionally, one should never give his credit card number when requesting a free report.

Bond Credit Rating
Just as individuals have credit ratings, corporations have bond credit ratings that assess their credit worthiness.  Reviewing the respective bond credit ratings is essential for those who are considering investing into debt securities from companies or foreign companies; these ratings help investors decide the investment’s level of risk.  Bond credit ratings, also known as corporate credit ratings, can be assigned to long and short-term obligations in addition to insurance companies, securities, preferred stock, and loans.  Generally, the long-term credit ratings indicate whether or not a country will pay its debt obligations.

Fitch IBCA, Moody’s, and Standard and Poor’s all provide rating systems to help investors determine the amount of risk associated with their investments.  Ratings range from high credit quality to junk or default quality.  A AAA rating is the highest credit quality; C or D is the lowest/junk quality.  For Fitch ICBA, AA would represent a high credit quality; BBB would represent very good credit quality; and AAA is the highest quality.  Anything under BBB would be considered speculative or junk, and the Standard and Poor rating system states a D rating denotes default junk status.

Sovereign credit ratings refer to a country’s capability to provide a stable investment atmosphere for potential investors.  Numerous factors – political stability, foreign currency reserves, economic status, public and private investment – are reflected with such sovereign credit ratings, which are often the first thing institution investors look at when deciding if they should invest abroad.

Not only do investors use credit ratings but also entities looking for investors.  Investment grade ratings can generate interest for a company or country and make it desired by foreign investors.  Emerging market economies benefit from having high credit ratings to show how safe their foreign investors’ moneys are.  As credit ratings facilitate investments, companies and nations attempt to improve their ratings, which in turn ensures an open capital market.