What Can You Find in a Credit Report? By Tony Francis At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

There are three major agencies that collect information from you and the establishments you conduct financial transactions with to come up with their versions of your credit report. As you might already know, the credit report is a helpful tool which creditors, banks, insurance companies and even employers use to asses whether you are responsible enough to handle finances. Other than that, what is in your credit report also makes up the variables that determine your credit score.

The next time you get denied for a loan or an apartment you are applying for, you should consider getting a copy of your own credit report and understand what it contains that affects the unfortunate event.

It is very common for people to come up with excuses to get the free annual credit report from each of the three credit reporting agencies. This is because the things in this document could really be too confusing to understand. But if you take a closer look at it, reading it is so much simpler than it seems.

Here are the information your credit report contains:

Personal Information

This part of the document contains your name, address and contact information. Previous addresses may also be included. Don't be surprised if you find misspellings on your name as credit reporting agencies use these variations as links between your identity and the credit information. However, you should make sure that what you have is definitely yours.

Credit Summary

This portion of the report is where you will find the summary of all your credit accounts. You will find here the total number of accounts, the types, balances, number of current accounts, and delinquent accounts as well. If you have one or more of the following types of accounts, you will see them here: real estate, mortgages, revolving accounts (credit cards), installment accounts (loans), collection accounts and others. In here also is a summary of accounts that are open, closed, in public records and the number of inquiries made against your credit in the past two years.

Account History

This takes up most of the document. In here are the details of all your payments. It is important that you read through all the information to be sure that they are correct and accurate. You will see the creditor's name, account number which could be shortened or scrambled for security purposes, account type, responsibility (individual, joint or authorized), monthly payment or the minimum amount you are required to pay on the account each month, date the account was opened, the last date the creditor updated the account with the bureau, credit limit or loan account, balance, past due, remarks from the credit, the status of the account (current, past due, charge-off), and the status since the time your account was opened.

Public Records

This part contains all information about bankruptcies, judgments, tax liens, state and country court records, and, in some states, overdue child support. These things stay on your credit report depending on the type of account.

Credit Inquiries

Finally, the last part of the document includes a list of all the parties, creditors and establishments which have accessed or requested for copies of your credit report. "Hard Inquiries" are what lenders receive when they get a copy of your report. These are list of lenders who requested to determine whether they should approve your applications or not. "Soft Inquiries" on the other hand are those creditors who take a copy of your report for promotional reasons.

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