The Credit Report Revealed – Part I

A Credit Report is a database file that is kept by each of the three major credit bureaus[1].  It contains data that has been sent to it by your creditors[2] throughout your financial life, ever since you obtained a social security number[3] and began working.

This report details your contact information, including your address, phone number, date of birth, social security number, and the history of each loan that is reported by your creditors.  It is your responsibility to inform the credit bureaus when you change your contact information.  Otherwise, the data sent to the credit bureaus may be attached to the wrong data file.

You may receive a copy of your credit report once a year for free by going to this website:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp  or you may call 1-877-322-8228.

The three credit bureaus names are:

Experian              www.experian.com         Based in Illinois, California                           888-397-3742

TransUnion         www.transunion.com     Based in Pennsylvania, California               800-916-8800

Equifax                 www.equifax.com           Based in Georgia, New York                        800-685-1111

You may elect to sign up for any one of a variety of paid service providers who will give you more frequent access to your data file from each of the three credit bureaus.  In this way, you can more quickly detect errors and deal with them.

If you find something you feel is incorrect in your credit report, you can dispute this error yourself by logging on to the credit bureau which is showing the incorrect information, explaining to them the problem, and asking for it to be solved[4].  You may elect to contact the creditor who reported the history of this loan or line of credit, or you may hire a credit repair company to assist you.

It is important that your data files accurately reflect your credit history because this information is frequently and regularly sold to mortgage lenders or mortgage brokers, leasing companies, auto loan companies, banks, financial institutions, and others who may be reviewing an application for credit from you.  Increasingly, this information is being accessed by employers as well.

There is an entire industry around the credit report and how to fix it.  But it is your responsibility alone to ensure accuracy on your report from EACH credit bureau.  Click here to get started.

See Example Credit Report.

[1] See Section on Credit Scoring

[2] A creditor is any person or company from whom you have purchased a product  or service.

[3] A social security number is an identification number that you receive when you register yourself with the Federal Government so you may legitimately receive a paycheck or compensation

[4] There are many ways to perform disputes.