What Your Free Annual Credit Report Says About You
Many of us like making photo albums containing pictures of ourselves, showing events and memories with family and friends. You have one more photo album that you hardly think of your credit report. Lenders will take a look at your credit report to see your spending and payment habits, so it's important to know what your credit report contains and what kind of picture about you it depicts.
Think of your credit report as a photo album of several snapshots. Each snapshot represents a part of your report, and portrays your lifestyle as well as spending and payment habits. Those snapshots will be seen by creditors when you apply for a new credit card or loan, or if you default on your credit payments.
Your credit report has four main snapshots. The first shows your identifying information – your name, your past and present addresses, your Social Security number, information about all the places you've worked in as well as your salary for each company, and information about your spouse if you're married.
The second snapshot depicts how good or bad a credit payer you are. It lists all your credit accounts as well as the credit limits, minimum balances, outstanding balance at the time of the report, when you opened the account and when the credit reporting agency began reporting that account. It also shows whether the credit account has been closed and whether it was you or the creditor who closed it.
The third is a picture of all the inquiries that were made on your report. There are hard inquiries and soft inquiries. Hard inquiries are those made by credit card companies if you're for a new credit card or a loan. This type of inquiry will usually stay on your credit report for two years, and have the effect of lowering your credit score by about 5 points for the next 6 months. Soft inquiries are those made by lenders who pre-approve you for a credit card, requests for your report for employment purposes, inquiries from your current credit card companies to checkup on you, and inquiries when you check your free annual credit report.
The fourth snapshot is a picture of the public records maintained by the government agencies and the local, state and federal courts about you, as well as records kept in land records offices. This includes information about lawsuits, divorce, bankruptcy filings, foreclosures, court judgments and judgment liens, tax liens, mechanic's liens, as well as criminal convictions and arrests. If you've ever been delinquent in child support payments, federal law requires that this be reported to credit bureaus for delinquencies of $1000 and more, and that gets reported in this section. Most of the agencies, however, will report all delinquencies regardless of the amount.
Just like a graduation photo or wedding picture, you want your snapshots to be ideal and show you at your best. It is therefore important that you periodically review your credit album and check to see that all the information reported about you is correct. If there is no erroneous information and the picture is still not as ideal as you want it, then you've got to work to improve your credit report and score.
We'll show you how. Visit our website to read more about how to improve your credit report and how to get your annual credit report for free. There are many ways to repair your credit, and you'll find useful advice about this on our site.
Your credit report has four main snapshots. The first shows your identifying information – your name, your past and present addresses, your Social Security number, information about all the places you've worked in as well as your salary for each company, and information about your spouse if you're married.
The second snapshot depicts how good or bad a credit payer you are. It lists all your credit accounts as well as the credit limits, minimum balances, outstanding balance at the time of the report, when you opened the account and when the credit reporting agency began reporting that account. It also shows whether the credit account has been closed and whether it was you or the creditor who closed it.
The third is a picture of all the inquiries that were made on your report. There are hard inquiries and soft inquiries. Hard inquiries are those made by credit card companies if you're for a new credit card or a loan. This type of inquiry will usually stay on your credit report for two years, and have the effect of lowering your credit score by about 5 points for the next 6 months. Soft inquiries are those made by lenders who pre-approve you for a credit card, requests for your report for employment purposes, inquiries from your current credit card companies to checkup on you, and inquiries when you check your free annual credit report.
The fourth snapshot is a picture of the public records maintained by the government agencies and the local, state and federal courts about you, as well as records kept in land records offices. This includes information about lawsuits, divorce, bankruptcy filings, foreclosures, court judgments and judgment liens, tax liens, mechanic's liens, as well as criminal convictions and arrests. If you've ever been delinquent in child support payments, federal law requires that this be reported to credit bureaus for delinquencies of $1000 and more, and that gets reported in this section. Most of the agencies, however, will report all delinquencies regardless of the amount.
Just like a graduation photo or wedding picture, you want your snapshots to be ideal and show you at your best. It is therefore important that you periodically review your credit album and check to see that all the information reported about you is correct. If there is no erroneous information and the picture is still not as ideal as you want it, then you've got to work to improve your credit report and score.
We'll show you how. Visit our website to read more about how to improve your credit report and how to get your annual credit report for free. There are many ways to repair your credit, and you'll find useful advice about this on our site.
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