How to Read a Credit Report
When I decided to get my credit report for the first time, I found that there were an awful lot of numbers, abbreviations and terms I've never seen before. So here I’m going to speak about trade lines, charge-offs, account review inquiries – how do you read this thing?First off, there are three major credit-reporting agencies in the United States: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Every 12 months, you can print a copy of your credit file from all three agencies by going to a single Web site, www.annualcreditreport.com.
The reports will have different information because it's a voluntary system, and creditors subscribe to whichever agency they want - if any at all.
While studying my first credit report I noticed that it was basically divided into four sections: identifying information, credit history, public records and inquiries.
Identifying information is just that – information to identify you. Look at it closely to make sure it's accurate. It's not unusual, Sweet says, for there to be two or three spellings of your name or more than one Social Security number. That's usually because someone reported the information that way. The variations will stay on your credit report.
The next section is your credit history. Sometimes, the individual accounts are called trade lines. Each account will include the name of the creditor and the account number, which may be scrambled for security purposes. You may have more than one account from a creditor. Many creditors have more than one kind of account, or if you move, they transfer your account to a new location and assign a new number.
The next section is the part you want to be absolutely blank. The public records section is never a good story. If you have a public record on there, you've had a problem. It doesn't list arrests and criminal activities; just financial-related data, such as bankruptcies, judgments and tax liens. Those are the monsters that will trash your credit faster than anything else.
The final section is the inquiries. That's a list of everyone who asked to see your credit report. Inquiries are divided into two sections. "Hard" inquiries are ones you initiate by filling out a credit application or taking your child to the orthodontist. "Soft" inquiries are from companies that want to send out promotional information to a pre-qualified group or current creditors who are monitoring your account.
Now you know when you apply for credit, factors like your income... expenses... debt...and credit history are used to determine your creditworthiness.
Comments:
Tracy Kim:"I don't think this credit report will help me much anyhow, but I have found it quite good. Maybe others would be thankful for this info."
John Collumbus:
"I have browsed through the web about 4 hours, but finally I am here. I reading about credits right now and I can say for sure this is what I've looking for."
Chris Johanson:
"No comments!"
