How It Works: Credit Reports

You’ve decided to take the plunge and review your credit reports. (Good call. Credit impacts so many aspects of our lives. It’s important to know where you stand.) The first part — getting your free credit report — should be easy. Just hop over to AnnualCreditReport.com and request them online, by telephone or by mail. Once you have them, the fun begins. You get to read and try to understand all the information the three major credit bureaus have compiled about you. That may seem daunting at first. After all, most reports consist of pages and pages of information. But there are ways to keep your eyes from crossing.

How Do I Read my Credit Report?

Credit reports, remember, are a detailed account of your credit history. The key word there is “detailed” — expect to find more than just the names of your credit accounts, including credit cards, home, auto and other loans. You’ll also see the payment history, account balance, limit, open date and status (paid in full, not paid in full, closed or open). Plus, there will be information about new credit inquiries, collection records and public records, such as bankruptcy filings and tax liens. For a comprehensive look at what’s on your credit file, be sure to visit our credit report learning center.

How can you start to make sense of all this info? Well, as that saying about how to eat an elephant goes, you just tackle it one bite (or bit) at a time. Here are the main things you’ll want to review your credit reports piece-by-piece.

1. Your Personal Information

When reviewing this section, which contains information such as your name (and variations), current and previous addresses, etc., your main goal should be to make sure your personal information is correct and up to date. Slight variations of an old address or minor misspellings shouldn’t be much of an issue. But if there is an address listed and you have never lived there, or your reports list a version of your name you have never used, you will want to ask the credit reporting agency to investigate. It could mean that your information is mixed up with someone else’s or that someone has tried to use your information fraudulently.

2. Account Information

In this section, you will see information about credit accounts you currently have, as well as some or all of your older accounts. It may take you a moment to understand everything listed here, but be patient with yourself as you figure it out. You should see the following details about each account (when relevant):

• Name of creditor
• Date opened
• Type of account (installment, revolving, open)
• Ownership — individual, joint account or authorized user
• Highest balance and/or credit limit
• Current balance
• Payment status (current or delinquent?)
• Past payment history month-by-month

Your main goal here is to make sure information is accurate. It’s a lot to digest, particularly the first time you look through it. Highlight anything you aren’t sure about, so you can come back to it after you have reviewed your entire report.

Keep in mind that some things you think may be wrong may not be. For example, your balance will typically be reported as of the statement date, which means the account could show a balance even if you pay it off in full. Or an account may still appear on your credit report even though you closed it years ago.

If you do find mistakes, however, you will want to dispute them with the credit reporting agency (more on this in a minute).

3. Inquiries

Here you’ll find information about any companies that have reviewed your credit reports in the past two years. It’s natural to be concerned about the fact that too many inquiries may hurt your credit scores, but for most people, the majority of inquiries won’t affect their scores. That’s because most of them will be “soft inquiries,” which are generated when the request isn’t related to a borrower’s request for financing. Soft inquiries include those generated for promotional or pre-approved credit offers, or “account review” inquiries generated when your current lenders review your credit. Pulling your own credit report is also considered a soft inquiry.

4. Public Record Information

In this part of your credit report, you’ll find bankruptcies, judgments, tax liens and/or collection accounts. One of the most important things to check here is that the dates listed are correct since they may directly affect how long these items will affect your credit. Collection accounts can be reported seven years plus 180 days from the date you first fell behind with the original creditor; bankruptcies may be reported for 10 years from the filing date (seven years in the case of Chapter 13); paid judgments may appear for seven years from the date the judgment was entered by the court; and paid tax liens may be reported for seven years from the date they were entered. (Still confused? You can find a full list of how long things stay on your credit report.)

Who Is That?

One common source of confusion is the names of companies found in the accounts and/or inquiries sections. This happens because the name of the business checking or reporting credit may be different from the name of the business you think you’re dealing with. (Your airline rewards credit card, for example, isn’t likely to be listed under the airline’s name; it will appear under the issuer’s name.)

Still, if you don’t recognize the name of a company listed on your credit reports, it’s worth investigating. After all, inquiries or accounts with companies you don’t recognize can be an early indication of identity theft. Full contact information for each company should be listed on your credit report so that you can contact them directly. If not, ask the CRA for that information.

Help! I Still Don’t Understand My Report

If, after carefully reviewing your credit report, you still don’t understand all the information it contains, your first step should be to contact the credit reporting agency that supplied it. You should find a report number listed at the top of your credit report. You will want to use that when you contact the CRA as it will make things easier and faster. Contact the CRA using the phone number or address supplied on your report. In addition, you should find an address and toll-free number for the agency on your report. By law, they must provide trained personnel who can help you understand the information in your report.

Read next: 5 Times It’s Crucial to Monitor Your Credit.

You probably think of your credit report in black-and-white terms, either good or bad. But it isn’t quite so simple — it really comes down to who is reviewing your credit report and for what.

The credit report itself is a compilation of facts about how you manage your credit, and for the most part, it is judgment free. It’s up to lenders, insurance companies or others who review your credit reports to evaluate that information and decide what they think, and they usually do that with the help of credit scores. Of course, the information used to calculate your credit score can be found in your credit report, so you don’t really want to evaluate one without checking the other.

How Are Your Credit Reports Compiled?

There’s a misconception that your credit report is a computer file that sits at a credit reporting agency and gets periodically updated. But it doesn’t quite work that way. When someone requests your report, the credit reporting agency’s computers go to work, compiling information that matches your identifying information with a report that can be scored or provided to the lender, insurance agency or other company that purchased it.

There are three main companies that compile credit reports: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. They typically don’t share information with each other, and the data each one collects and reports may be different as a result. That’s why it’s a good idea to review your reports with each of these agencies so you know where you stand. You can get your credit reports free once a year from AnnualCreditReport.com and access two of your free credit scores with updates every month, here on Credit.com. Checking your scores will not harm them in any way, nor will looking at your reports.

What’s In Your Credit Report?

There are four main categories of information in your credit report: personal information, account information, public record information, and inquiries.

Personal information includes the items used to help identify accounts that are yours when your report is compiled, such as:

• Your current and former names (if you’ve married or divorced and changed your name, for example)
• Your Social Security number
• Current and former addresses

Here, you’ll want to investigate addresses you see that are clearly wrong — in another state, for example — or variations of your name you don’t recognize. They could mean your credit information is getting mixed up with that of someone else, or they could be a sign of identity theft, which can drag down your scores and cause financial trouble. (You can learn more about the dangers of identity theft and how it can hurt your credit scores here.)

Account information, or tradelines, is the meat of your credit report and usually the most detailed section. It may include:

• Credit cards, department store cards, gas company cards
• Vehicle loans or leases; RV and boat loans
• Mortgages and home equity loans
• Consumer finance company accounts
• Credit union credit cards or loans

Each individual account will also list details such as:

• Lender name and account number
• Date the account was opened and closed, if applicable
• Original and current balance
• Monthly payment amount
• Payment history
• Current status (paid as agreed, 30 days late, etc.)

Remember when we said credit reports are compiled when requested? That means your credit report includes the latest information reported by your lenders. If your lender hasn’t reported you paid your balance off yet, for example, the last balance reported will show up. It may take up to 30 days for your current balance to be reported. (And by then, it may have changed again.) Also remember that some accounts, like medical bills, are only likely to show up on your credit reports if they have been turned over to collections. Because reporting accounts is voluntary, you may not see all of your loans on your reports or only appear on some reports and not others.

Public record information includes items that are part of the public record, which means they have been recorded with a court. This section can also contain collection accounts, even though those are not part of the public record. Here’s what you’ll find:

• Civil judgments (criminal information is not reported on standard consumer reports)
• Bankruptcies
• Federal, state and county property and tax liens
• Collection accounts

When checking this information, you’ll want to make sure all dates and balances are correct. Dates are especially important because they determine when these items will come off your credit reports. It’s also important to note that while paying a collection account may be the right thing to do and may help you avoid being sued for a debt, it may not boost your credit scores. If you currently have an account in collections, this guide can help you learn more about how to deal with a debt collector.

Inquiries note when someone has obtained your credit information. There is nothing that indicates whether you were approved or rejected for credit at that time. Some inquiries can affect your credit scores, but not all of them do. Soft inquiries generally aren’t seen by anyone except the consumer and usually won’t affect your credit scores. Here are some examples.

• Consumer inquiries, which indicate you’ve requested your own credit information.
• Promotional inquiries, usually for prescreened credit cards. (You can remove your name from these marketing lists by calling 1-888-5OPT-OUT.)
• Account review inquiries, which are created when lenders request your credit information.
• Employment or insurance-related inquiries
• Mortgage, auto and student loan inquiries within a recent time period (usually 30 or 45 days, depending on the scoring model). Inquiries of these types are usually grouped together.

It’s a good idea to look into inquiries from companies whose names you don’t recognize. While it’s possible they could be from companies you’ve done business with (if they report under a different company name, for example), they could also indicate fraud like identity theft, which we mentioned can bring down your credit scores. You’ll want to dispute any errors you discover as soon as you can to avoid further damage. Not sure where to start? You can learn more about disputing an error on your credit report by reading this primer.

This article has been updated. It was originally published on April 28, 2014.

Following are questions we frequently hear about credit reports and credit scores. In order to find out which of these problems may affect your credit, we recommend you get your free credit reports at least once a year, as well as monitor your credit score for free at Credit.com. You will get a complete explanation of the factors affecting your score, as well as an action plan for better credit.

1. How long does negative information stay on your credit reports? I’ve heard “seven years.”
2. Why are there 3 credit bureaus and how do they differ, if at all?
3. Should I pay off a judgment that is showing up on my credit report? If I do, and it is marked “paid,” what will this mean?
4. Will all delinquent bills be reported to a credit bureau?
5. What are the top ways to re-build your credit score quickly?
6. Are there any legitimate ways to “repair” your credit and credit scores?
7. If I have absolutely new credit how soon can I see a credit score developing?
8. How many times can I pull my own credit report through services like www.credit.com before it impacts my credit score?
9. How much does having my credit checked by a credit grantor impact my score?

1. How long does negative information stay on your credit reports? I’ve heard “seven years.”

Positive or neutral information can stay on your credit reports indefinitely, though in practice some credit reporting agencies will remove accounts that are older. Experian, for example, no longer reports accounts that are more than ten years old if the account is closed and there is no activity on it.

Accounts such as credit cards and mortgages can stay on a credit report for many years if they are open and active.

With negative information, however, federal law limits how long that information may be reported:

• Chapter 7 Bankruptcies – These will stay on your credit reports for up to 10 years from the filing date. Interestingly, the accounts that are included in this type of bankruptcy will
  have been removed from your credit reports years before the actual record of filing chapter 7 is removed.
• Unpaid Tax Liens – These will stay on your credit report indefinitely. Yes, indefinitely. Once paid, the will remain on your credit reports for seven years from the date they were filed, not the date you pay them off. It is possible to get unpaid tax liens removed from your credit before the tax debt is satisfied if you qualify for the IRS Fresh Start program.
• Defaulted Student Loans – The 7 year rule does not apply to defaulted student loans that are government issued or guaranteed. These items can also stay on your credit report indefinitely.
• Collection Accounts – These accounts may be reported for seven years plus 180 days from the date you first fell behind with the original creditor, leading up to when the account was charged off and placed for collection. After that time period elapses, they may no longer be reported, even if they remain unpaid or have been sold to a new collection agency.

So how can you be sure that these items will be removed when the time has come?

Each of the credit bureaus hard codes their credit reporting systems to look for the “purge from” dates. As these dates hit their 7 or 10 year anniversary they will no longer be reported. Unless you believe that an account is being reported past those time limits, there is no need to remind the credit bureaus that an item is to be removed. It is done automatically. Still, it’s a good idea to check your free credit report each year to make sure that is the case.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT COLLECTIONS: Collection agencies will often report debts to the credit bureaus in an attempt to collect from the consumer. This is perfectly legal as defined by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The issue here is that, intentionally or not, collection agencies sometimes report to the credit bureaus using a newer “purge from” date despite the fact that this is not allowed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The result of this misreporting is that the collection item will remain on the credit file longer than they should. If that happens, you can dispute the old account.

2. Why are there 3 credit bureaus and how do they differ, if at all?

Industry consolidation has whittled what used to be scores of local and regional credit bureaus down to the three that we know of today: Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. There was a day when you actually had a local credit bureau that would sell your credit file to lenders in your geographic locale. Over the past several decades the “big three” gobbled up these smaller credit bureaus in an effort to become truly “national” in their coverage. What this means is that if you lived in Miami all your life and then moved to Anchorage that your credit report would still follow you despite all of your credit having been issued when you lived in south Florida. The benefit of these national credit bureaus is that you won’t lose any of your solid credit management history simply because you’ve moved to another part of the country. Likewise, moving to another part of the country will not rid you of any negative credit reporting challenges that you may have faced in the past.

And, oh yes, they do differ. Equifax, TransUnion and Experian are three separate companies who compete against each other. As such, they do not share their information. It is very unlikely that your credit reports are the same at all three credit bureaus. There are three primary reasons why not:

• Not all of your lenders report to all three of the credit bureaus – While some lenders do report your credit information to all three credit bureaus, this isn’t mandatory. There are almost always going to be differences in your credit history at one or more of the credit bureaus, though many will be minor and won’t affect your ability to get credit.
• Even if all of your lenders DO report to all three credit bureaus the information will probably be different – The lenders that do report to all three credit bureaus do so by sending data tapes to them each month. The problem is that the credit bureaus may not receive them at the same time and don’t “run” them at the same time. As such, your account information will generally be different depending on the time of the month.
• Not all lenders pull a credit report from all three credit bureaus when they are processing your credit applications – When you applied for that credit card or auto loan your lender most likely chose to pull only one of your three credit reports. This means that the “inquiry” is only going to show up on one of your three credit reports. The exception to this rule is a mortgage application. Most mortgage lenders will pull all three of your credit reports during their loan processing practices.

3. Should I pay off a judgment that is showing up on my credit report? If I do, and it is marked “paid,” what will this mean?

At Credit.com we will always advise you to pay off your debts, delinquent or otherwise. If you have a judgment on your credit report then it serves you well to pay it off. Here’s why:

• Lenders with whom you want to do business will look upon a paid judgment more favorably. As a matter of fact, some lenders will require that you pay off delinquent obligations before they will approve your loans. You might as well do it sooner rather than later so you look proactive rather than reactive.
• Credit scoring models will also view you more favorably if your delinquent obligations are paid in full. Since credit scoring is used in almost all of your credit transactions it’s in your best interest to maximize your scores by paying off your past due obligations.

4. Will all delinquent bills be reported to a credit bureau?

Most of them will eventually make it to your credit reports if you refuse to or cannot make your payments. It goes without saying that most of your traditional credit goes on your credit reports; auto loans, mortgages, credit cards, student loans and retail store cards. The following are some “non traditional” types of credit that don’t make it to your credit reports: utilities, cellular phone service and doctor’s bills. These credit items generally won’t show up on your credit reports unless you stop paying them. Once you stop paying them they’ll likely be sold off to third party collection agencies that will most definitely report them on your credit files. It may take a while, but eventually most will end up on your credit reports.

5. What are the top ways to rebuild your credit score quickly?

A low score is a result of poor credit management, or life events such as divorce or serious illness. Your credit history reflects that you are missing or have missed payments and/or you have too much debt. These two occurrences will make it very hard to earn a high score because they drive about 65% of the “points” in your credit scores.

The only way to rebuild your credit scores is to address why they are low in the first place. Sounds obvious but you’d be surprised how many people take a “shot in the dark” approach at rebuilding their credit scores. Or, they are guided by misinformation and/or unscrupulous individuals that promise a better credit score in exchange for a fee. Formulating a plan to rebuild your credit scores is not difficult. Here’s how to do it:

• Identify where you stand right now – In order to do this you will need to check your credit scores and the credit reports from which they are derived.
• Review the “reason codes” – Reason codes are the four explanations as to why your scores aren’t higher than they are currently. They are delivered along with your scores whenever a lender requests it. For example, one of your reason codes might be “Serious Delinquency” or perhaps “Amount owed on accounts is too high.”
• Be patient – After reviewing your reason codes you may realize that a plan to rebuild your scores may take longer than you’d like. A low score caused by delinquencies will take time to rebuild because delinquencies stay on your credit files for years. However, as these delinquencies age, their impact on your scores will lessen and your scores will increase as long as you now manage your credit well and pay accounts on time.
• Establish new credit – If you’ve filed bankruptcy or have serious delinquencies, the best way to rebuild your score is to jump right back in and establish new credit. But this time you have to manage your accounts more responsibly. Make your payments on time and don’t use up more than 20% of the available credit limits on your credit cards. If you can do this then your scores will increase much faster than simply waiting for your delinquencies to fall off your reports.

6. Are there any legitimate ways to “repair” your credit and credit scores?

It depends. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act you have the right to ask that the information on your credit reports be verified as accurate and not outdated. The credit bureaus have 30 days to complete the verification process or they must remove or change the information to coincide with your dispute. Credit repair companies may assist you in writing and that is something that you can do on your own, for free. It is sort of like cleaning your gutters or changing your oil. You can do it yourself for a fraction of the cost…the question is, do you really want to?

From this point forward is where it gets a little fuzzy. Disputing data that you know to be accurate isn’t considered a legitimate dispute. And, the credit bureaus are likely to validate it as accurate and leave it on your reports. There are no surefire methods for “repairing” accurate credit data that you simply don’t want on your credit reports.

Beware the company or individual who guarantees that they can remove delinquencies or create a new credit report in your name. These are not legitimate practices and are illegal in most states.

7. If I have absolutely new credit how soon can I see a credit score developing?

Developing your credit score comes naturally as a result of building your credit history. You’ve heard the saying “if you build it they will come?” It applies to credit scoring as well. If you build your credit history then your score will come shortly after followed by more creditors that will want your business. The credit scoring models are looking for two things before they will “score” your credit files: age and activity. For some credit score models, you must have at least one account that is greater than 3 to 6 months old and at least one account that has been reported to the credit bureaus within the last 6 to 12 months. The same account can qualify you for a score. So, a credit report with one account open for 9 months that has reported to the credit bureaus within the past 30 days will qualify for a score. Once you’ve built a score, the challenge is to maximize it.

8. How many times can I pull my own credit reports before it impacts my credit score?

There is good news. Pulling your own credit report is considered a “consumer disclosure” request and therefore your scores will never be impacted. In fact, you can
get your credit score and credit report card for free right now!. If, however, you are getting your credit reports from a friend at a mortgage company or at an auto dealership your scores will be impacted. The reason is that their “credit report access” accounts are not setup for consumer disclosure. They are set up as lenders so the “hard pull” will count against the consumers score.

9. How much does having my credit checked by a credit grantor impact my score?

This is called a credit inquiry. Anytime a creditor or anyone else accesses your credit report it posts an inquiry. This is a record of who pulled your credit report and on what date. The credit bureaus are required to keep a complete list of all inquiries into your credit report for, in most cases, 24 months.

According to credit scoring research, consumers who are actively shopping for credit are higher credit risks than consumers who are not. This makes common sense. Think about this: would you rather lend money to someone who is applying all over town or to someone who applies only when they need credit? Since there is a correlation between shopping for credit and being a higher credit risk an inquiry will, in some cases, lower your credit score. Don’t worry too much though.

Most credit scoring models have logic built into them that addresses “rate” shopping for auto loans, student loans, and mortgage lending. The models are smart enough to identify whether you are shopping for the best interest rate by comparing creditors and whether you are out trying to open many accounts in a short period of time.
The actual number of points that an inquiry is worth is a closely guarded secret. However, it’s safe to say that only those who are “excessively” shopping for credit will be seriously damaging their scores. The moral of this story is to shop and apply for credit only when you need it and, optimally, only after you have gotten your credit and scores in good order.