A big part of your financial life is your credit report. Not to be confused with your credit score, your credit report allows you to see your credit history in detail. Credit users have three different reports from three different credit bureaus, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.
Research(PDF) from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau indicates that some consumers struggle to understand the contents of credit reports. Each of the three reports’ content differs depending upon who is inquiring about your credit. The reports all, however, include the following:
Personal information such as your addresses – present or past, date of birth, spouse, or your employer’s name
Public records such as financial related court proceedings, tax liens and bankruptcies
Your credit history including amounts that are owed and payment history as well as credit limits, loans and debt-to-credit ratio
Inquiries are a list of who has requested your credit report. Hard inquiries are initiated when applying for credit, and soft inquiries are from current creditors monitoring your activity.
When viewing your credit report, you’ll see a listing of all of your various accounts, loans and mortgages, whether or not they are in good standing, and whether past payments have been paid on time.
You can access each of the three credit reports once a year for no charge by visiting annualcreditreport.com. As noted above, your credit report is not to be confused with your credit score. In fact, even running your credit report will not get you access to your credit score. All three credit bureaus offer the option to pay for your credit score for a fee after viewing your credit report. While your credit report does not show your credit score automatically, it is still important that you review the information in your credit report annually to check for errors. The information here is certainly related to your credit score, which will impact the choices you are able to make as a consumer. (More information to come about credit scores on the Live Smart Ohio blog next week!) You can report errors that you might see through annualcreditreport.com once you’ve gone in and accessed your reports. Before you pay the fee to see your score, make sure the information is accurate.
If you decide to run your free annual credit report, it is a good idea to mark your calendar as to when you did it, so that you know when you are able to access another free report. You can also decide to spread out the dates on which you access each of the three reports so that you can see your reports regularly throughout the year. This way, you can view a credit report once every four months for no cost. This is an especially good idea if you are anticipating a large purchase, such as a home, and may need to see your credit history sooner than in one year.
Tip: Print out your credit report to view it closely when you have time or download it onto a USB flash drive (jump drive, thumb drive) to keep with your electronic records. Whatever you decide to do – remember to keep your credit report, with its personal information, in a secure place!
