CREDIT

Understanding Your Credit Report

There are four primary categories of information

contained a credit report:

Personal Information
Credit History
Public Records
Inquiries

Personal Information includes:

Name
Current and previous addresses
Social Security number
Telephone number
Date of birth
Current and previous employers

A credit report does NOT include:

Race
Gender
Religion
Sexual orientation
National origin
Medical history
Checking or savings accounts
Credit score

Public records information includes:

Tax liens
Bankruptcies
Court judgments (including child support judgments)

Any negative activity in this section reflects poorly on your credit worthiness. Even if an item has been paid in full, the presence of even a one-time occurrence indicates a potential future concern for creditors.

Credit history includes a listing of all credit accounts in the last ten years. Types of credit accounts include:

Retail credit cards
Bank loans
Finance company loans
Mortgages
Bank credit cards

Credit history shows creditors how well you have kept your financial promises. Each entry includes:

Account number
Creditor's name
Amount borrowed
Amount owed
Credit limit
Dates when the account was opened, updated, or closed
Timeliness of payments
Late payments (these are noted as a negative activity)

The inquiries section includes a listing of all parties who have requested a copy of your credit report. Your rights to privacy are protected by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and therefore only inquiries from those entities with a permissible purpose are granted access to the report.

Inquiries that do not appear on the business version of your credit report are promotional inquiries or account management inquiries. Both promotional and account management inquiries are not counted as official inquiries.

Source: Edfund.org