Reading Credit Reports
Credit reports are divided into four different segments: identifying information about the individual, credit history, public records, and inquiries made to the credit file.
Identifying information should include your name and address, and social security number. If you see a few variations of your name or more than one social security number, it’s because one of your creditors has reported it incorrect, but that information should remain because taking it off can hurt the connection between the report and the creditors who use it.
Identifying information also includes your employer(s), driver’s license numbers and sometimes your spouse’s name.
Credit history includes a list of individual accounts and account numbers (which may be encrypted). Information for each account will usually show the date it was opened, the type of credit (mortgage, car loan, installment, revolving), total amount of your loan and the amount you still owe, as well as the status of the account (open, closed, paid as agreed, inactive) and how you’ve been making payments on the account (on time, 30 days late, 90 days late, etc).
Public records is a section that you hope has nothing in it. This section provides details for bankruptcies, tax liens and judgments. This section will lower your credit score faster than anything else can.
Inquiries provide a list of “hard” inquiries- credit you’ve applied for and can affect your credit score- although FICO ignores most inquiries when coming up with their scores for individuals, and “soft” inquiries from credit card lenders who check your file before sending out promotional credit card offers. Soft inquiries do not raise or lower your credit score.
Article from destroydebt.com
