Credit Reports - How to Understand Them
October 9, 2008
Managing your finances and being in control of your credit all begins with knowledge of your credit rating. To gain such knowledge you need to understand your credit report. A credit report at first glance can be confusing. At is full of account numbers, balances and scores that will mean nothing to you until you learn how to decipher the report.
Agencies Creating Credit Reports
The three agencies that report on your credit and have the most impact on your credit are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. These are the three companies from which you want to request your credit report annually. You can get a free copy each year and each of these agencies is easily accessible on line.
What Is in These Reports?
Creditors supply information to the credit reporting agencies. Since each agency receives information from different creditors, and the creditors have various manners of providing information, the information that their reports contain will vary.
The Main Parts of a Credit Report
The credit report contains your personal information, your credit background, credit requests and public records information. Your personal information includes your current and past addresses and telephone numbers, your driver’s license number and of course your social security number.
Credit History
The second part of your credit report is your credit history. Each account will have the name of the creditor and the account number. You will need to make sure that these are valid accounts that you have now or had at one time. If they are wrong, you will be given a chance to dispute them.
Public Records
If you have a criminal record, have ever been arrested and have had any judgements filed against you, these will be reported in the public records section of your credit report. You hope to have no information in this section.
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