Defining a Credit Report
A Credit Article Contributed by Shafia Nuzhat
Defining a Credit Report
What does a credit report say about your credit worthiness? A credit report shows how reliable you are and whether you will repay your credit as you promised. Thus, it reflects your trustworthiness too. Similarly when you had to lend someone a loan, you would check upon that person's creditworthiness, either through word of mouth or his past history of repayment. A word of mouth however does not serve the purpose when you have to borrow money from a bank.
You will need a credit report that guarantees your credit worthiness. A credit report conveys you are credit worthy and you will repay any loan on time. All banks or credit lending institutions would want to check your credit report before offering you credit.
Purpose of a Credit Report
Most credit lending companies/banks record your creditworthiness when you pay bills, by keeping track of how you pay your bills. This is how your credit report is formed. These companies report it to one or more credit reporting companies thereby forming your payment history. The better your payment history, the more positive is your credit report looks, the more easily the companies loan you money with the trust that you can pay off over time.
Whether you need credit or not, you must know about your credit report. The credit report is a snapshot of your credit history. It will help your creditors lend your credit faster, without many hassles.
Credit Report by the Credit Bureaus
There are three major credit bureaus that give you a credit report. They are: Experian, Equifax and Transunion. You can order a credit score or a credit rating along with your credit report from these agencies/bureaus. You can obtain more information about these bureaus from their Websites, namely: www.experian.com; www.equifax.com; www.transunion.com . Your credit report contains, the name of your credit report agency, from where you ordered it.
Some agencies offer you a free credit report if you are getting it for the first time. Some agencies charge you $10 to $15 a copy. You can order a free credit report from any of these agencies online or via telephone.
Information in Your Credit Report
The other important information in your credit report is your identification and personal details. This includes your name, spouse's name, social security number, current and previous addresses, date of birth, and current and past employers. Credit reporting bureaus collect this information from your previous credit applications. Then comes the details about the collection agency, that collected the debt from you, in the event of default from your side.
This section states your credit history, including any accounts your creditors have turned over to a collection agency in the event of default. A collections agency collects debts on behalf of the lender, from the customers who have not repaid their debt within a specified time.
Credit Report - Credit Account Information
The next section in your credit report is the Credit Account Information, which includes the following details: Company Name (the name of the lender such as, the bank, institutions, auto finance company, etc); Account number (your personal account number with the credit-lending company); whose account (whether the account belongs to an individual or it is a joint account, indicated by alphabets, I or J); Date Opened (the date when you opened the account); months review (accounting history for the number of months); last date of activity; high credit (upper limit of your credit); terms (number of installments, and the amount/installment); Items as of Date Reported Balance; Past Due (amount owed) Status (indicated by codes, as to how often you pay on time); Date Reported (account when last updated) and Previous Payment History (whether you have defaulted any time in the past).
