How to read your credit report, section by section

A credit report can look dense the first time you open it. Most reports group your information into the same few sections, and knowing what belongs in each one makes it easier to spot something that doesn’t.

What a credit report is

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) describes a credit report as a statement that has information about your credit activity, such as your loan payment history and the status of your credit accounts. Credit reporting companies, also called credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies, collect this information from creditors like lenders and credit card companies.

Most people have more than one credit report. Creditors aren’t required to report to every credit reporting company, so your reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion may not match exactly. It’s worth reading each one. If you haven’t pulled yours yet, see the post on how to get your free credit reports.

Lenders use your report to decide whether to lend you money and what interest rate to offer, and to check whether you still meet the terms of an existing account. The CFPB says other businesses may use it to set insurance rates, approve rental applications, decide deposit amounts, or set the cost and terms of services like utilities and cell phone plans. With your agreement, an employer may use it too.

Personal information

This section identifies you. According to the CFPB, it can include:

• Names you’ve used with credit accounts, including nicknames
• Current and former addresses
• Your birth date
• Your Social Security number
• Phone numbers

What to check

The CFPB lists identity errors among the common problems people find. Look for a wrong name, phone number or address. Also watch for accounts that belong to someone else, especially someone with a similar name, which the CFPB calls a mixed file. Accounts opened through identity theft fall into this group too.

Credit accounts

This is usually the longest section. It lists your current and past accounts. For each one, the CFPB says a report can show:

• The account type and its status, such as foreclosure
• The credit limit or loan amount
• The balance
• Your payment history
• The dates the account was opened and closed
• The name of the creditor

What to check

The CFPB’s list of common errors includes:

• Closed accounts reported as open
• Being listed as an owner of an account when you’re only an authorized user
• Accounts wrongly reported as late or delinquent
• Wrong dates for your last payment, the date the account was opened, or the date of first delinquency
• The same debt listed more than once, sometimes under different creditor names
• An incorrect current balance or credit limit

Collection items and public records

The CFPB says collection items can include missed payments, loans sent to collections, and overdue child support information provided by a state or local child support agency or verified by a government agency. The public records section covers bankruptcies.

The FTC explains that accurate negative information, such as late payments, can generally be reported for seven years, and bankruptcy information can be reported for 10 years. These time limits only apply to correct information. Information that’s wrong must be corrected.

Inquiries

The inquiries section shows companies that have accessed your credit report. The CFPB describes an inquiry as a request to view your report to decide whether you qualify for credit, employment, housing, insurance or another purpose. There are two kinds.

Hard inquiries

A hard inquiry usually happens when a lender checks your report after you apply for credit. The CFPB says hard inquiries can lower your credit scores, because scoring models consider how recently and how frequently you apply for credit. Others can see hard inquiries when they buy your report.

Soft inquiries

Soft inquiries include a lender or insurer reviewing an account you already have, prescreening by lenders for offers, employment screening, and your own requests to see your reports. The CFPB says soft inquiries don’t affect your credit scores, and only you can see them when you review your own report.

If something looks wrong

The CFPB suggests contacting both the credit reporting company that provided the report and the furnisher, which is the lender or other company that supplied the information. Your report should include dispute instructions. The FTC says you can dispute with each bureau that has the error, and with the business that supplied the information.

When you dispute by mail, the FTC suggests circling the mistakes on a copy of your report and sending copies, not originals, of any documents that support your position. For a step-by-step walk-through, see the post on disputing credit report errors.

The short version

• Most credit reports have sections for personal information, credit accounts, collection items, public records and inquiries.
• Your reports from the three nationwide bureaus may differ, so read each one.
• Check for identity errors, wrong account status, and incorrect balances or credit limits.
• Hard inquiries can affect your scores. Soft inquiries, including checking your own report, don’t.
• If you find an error, you can dispute it with the credit bureau and with the company that supplied the information.

Sources

• CFPB: What is a credit report?
• CFPB: What are common credit report errors that I should look for on my credit report?
• CFPB: What is a credit inquiry?
• FTC: Disputing Errors on Your Credit Reports

General information, not legal or financial advice. Laws and government guidance change, so check the sources above for the latest.