Credit report explained for the consumer

Personal information

• The top part of your credit report has the identifying information. It includes your name, social security number, date of birth, current and former addresses, any employment history reported to the credit bureau, alerts on file and a consumer statement if you have one.

1. Where the information comes from

• Creditors report consumers’ identifying information along with their account information to the credit bureaus, as do public record collectors with public records. Sometimes when inquiries are made, identifying information that’s typed in also gets reported by creditors.

It’s not a big deal if your employment history has no information listed. Iit doesn’t get updated and your employment history is not an important piece of information as social security numbers and names are. They really don’t care who your employer is as long as you’re paying your bills on time.

Credit summary

This section lists your credit account activity and how many closed accounts you have, how many accounts are in good standing and the number of accounts you have currently past due. It also accumulates the different accounts you have, such as mortgage, revolving or installment.

Account information

This is where you’ll find the detailed information about your accounts. It includes all facts about your account, like the type of account it is and when you opened it and also payment information, such as the highest balance and the amount past due.

Inquiries

The CBR separates inquiries that hurt your credit score from those that do not — AKA - hard and soft inquiries. A hard inquirie occurs when you apply for new credit and give permission for a company to pull your credit report. Consumers and subscribers can see these inquiries. Soft inquiries are displayed only to the consumer and can occur when you request your own report or when one of your existing creditors reviews your account.

Collections

These are accounts that have been sent to collection agencies.

Public records

This section lists any bankruptcies, liens, garnishments and other judgments against you. Public record information comes from the courts at every level - city court, county court, state and federal courts.