What Information Appears in My Credit Report?
Here’s what to expect when looking at your credit report.
The contents of a consumer credit report can be broken down into 5 categories:
Personal Information:
This includes your name(s), any aliases, addresses, both current and previous, spouses name, date of birth, telephone number, and both current and previous employers.
Creditor Trade Lines:
This includes all conventional credit lines such as credit cards, student loans, auto loans, mortgages, and personal loans.
Each trade line contains the creditor’s name and account number as well as your payment history, credit limits, balances, dates opened, dates of last activity, and account statuses.
Collection Accounts:
When an account is past due, a creditor has the option to forward your debt to a third-party debt collector also known as a collection agency.
These collection agencies then pursue the debt on behalf of the original creditor.
Collection accounts will include information such as the name of the collection agency, their account number, as well as when the account was opened, the balance due on the account, the name of the original creditor, and the status.
Public Records:
The public records section of your credit report shows court records such as bankruptcies, judgments, and tax liens.
Public records are some of the most damaging accounts to a consumer credit report and drastically lower credit scores.
Inquiries:
An inquiry is a history of creditors accessing your credit report.
This may either be an application for credit (such as applying for an auto loan or credit card) or be an account review inquiry where a creditor accesses your credit report to check your financial standing.
The inquiry section reports all inquiries made within the last 2 years and having more than 1 inquiry every 6 months can lower your credit scores.