What is a Credit Report?
A credit report contains information about your credit history. Credit reports are compiled by a credit reference agency such as Equifax or Experian. Lenders, employers, landlords etc are able to purchase this information in order to help them to decide whether to offer you a job, a rental property or credit such as a loan, a credit card or a mortgage. The following information is included within a credit report : • Personal information such as your name, address and date of birth plus additional information such as your current employer and previous employer. • Credit information including the date credit accounts were opened, the credit limit, the loan amount, the outstanding balance and the payment history (including any late or missed papyments). Closed or old accounts will also appear for up to 6 years from the date they were last used. • Enquiries made by anyone wishing to look at your credit file. These stay on your file for up to two years. The types of institutions looking at
Credit reports are compiled by credit bureaus – private companies that gather information about your credit history and sell it to banks, mortgage lenders, credit unions, credit card companies, department stores, insurance companies, landlords and even a few employers. Credit bureaus get most of their data from creditors. They also search court records for lawsuits, judgments, bankruptcy filings and recorded liens (legal claims). To create a credit file for a given person, a credit bureau searches its computer files until it finds entries that match the name, Social Security number and any other available identifying information. Credit reports include non-credit data such as names you previously went by, past and present addresses, Social Security number, employment history, marriages and divorces. Credit data includes the names of your creditors, type and number of each account, when each account was opened, your payment history for the previous 24-36 months, your credit limit or the
A credit report, or credit file disclosure, provides you with all of the information in your credit portfolio maintained by a consumer reporting company that could be provided by the consumer reporting company in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as a lender. Your “report” also includes a record of everyone who has received a consumer report about you from the consumer reporting company within a certain period of time (“inquiries”). The credit report includes certain information that is not included in a consumer report about you to a third party, such as the inquiries of companies for pre-approved offers of credit or insurance and account reviews, and any medical account information which is suppressed for third party users of consumer reports. You are entitled to receive a disclosure copy of your credit file from a consumer reporting company under Federal law and the laws of various states. 2. What is a credit score? A credit score is a complex mathematical model tha
In the United States, credit files on individuals are kept by three different credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. All three are private-sector, for-profit companies. The credit files they maintain contain extensive information on you and your credit history. This information is obtained mainly from lenders, creditors, insurers, employers and other institutions with which you may have a financial relationship. Any company that issues you any type of loan (such as a mortgage or car loan) or a credit card reports to at least one and often all three credit bureaus each month. These companies give the bureaus the latest status of your relationship with them, including your outstanding balance and whether or not you have been paying on time. The bureaus then keep all of this information in your credit file. Information about you is also obtained from public records. In addition, any time you apply for credit and a creditor requests your credit report from one of the bureaus (a
