How to Read and Interpret Sections of Your Credit Report - By: Suzy Vanstrusen

Make sure that you carefully check each and every information contained in your credit report after receiving it. This will help you see if there is a reason to file a dispute or not. This article will walk you through what every detail in your credit report means to you.

Identifying Information

This section is where you'll find basic information about you. Details such as your name, home address, SSN, date of birth, driver's license number, phone numbers, spouse's name, employer's address, etc. Nevertheless, you should still take the time to inspect each of these details to make sure that everything is correct. It is a common case for a credit report to contain misspelled names, wrong phone number or an incomplete address. Also, a single wrong digit in your Social Security or Driver's License number can make you an entirely different person. Thus, it is essential to check if all these relevant details are accurately listed.

Your Credit History

This is the highlight of your credit report and the number one reason why you requested a copy. Under this section, all your activities that has to do with your finances are recorded. These are the items that you can expect to find in the credit history section of your report: company name, account number, the type of account (individual, undesignated, joint, authorized user, co-signer, etc.), the opening date, months reviewed, last activity (payment or charge), credit limit, terms, balances, past due charges, current status of your account, timeliness of payment, etc. If you have accounts that have been submitted on to a collection agency, it can be found in the Collection Accounts section.

Scrutinizing this particular section of your report might require you to be very careful but always consider that in these cases, the tiniest error can cause huge problems in your finances. So take your time and carefully examine each of your accounts.

Public Records Section

This is the section of your credit report that should be empty. Bankruptcy records, judgments, tax liens, overdue child support, collections counts, etc. A record under this section will instantly have a negative impact to your credit score.

The Inquiry Section

This last section contains inquiries made by the creditors you've submitted an application to. Before your approval will be granted, a credit report check will always be implemented by the lenders to see if you're a high-risk borrower or not. Thus, when applying for a loan or a credit card, it is not advisable to submit several applications to different lenders at once in the hope that one of them gives you an approval. Applications declined by your creditors will obviously have a negative impact to your score. On the other hand, creditors who initiated to take a look at your credit report because of your good reputation will not damage your credit score at all.

Copyright (c) 2009 Suzy Vanstrusen

About the Author

Suzy Vanstrusen is a credit analyst and a writer of the website EZCreditRepairSolutions.com and has been providing consumers with tips and tricks in repairing your credit. Check the site for more free credit repair tips and credit repair services.

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