What Is a Credit Report?

A credit report is the sum of information gathered on your credit history, by a CRA (credit reporting agency). This information is then sold to credit grantors, such as banks, lending institutions and credit card companies.

Your credit report will include such information as:

• Your address, present and past
• Outstanding debts
• Record of payments (e.g. regular, late, missed)
• Public record information such as liens, or court judgements against you
• Your employer's name and address
• General information such as your Social Security number, and marital status

Keeping track of your credit history is a very wise move. Sending for your credit report twice a year, will keep you current on what has been recorded about your credit transactions. It will also show you if there has been activity in any of the following areas:

• Credit fraud: Where someone uses your credit card numbers to run up large bills. While the law protects you with a maximum payable of $50 for each card that has been stolen, the unusual credit activity may red flag your file for some lenders.
  
  
• Identity theft: When someone takes an account number and/or personal information, and begins opening other accounts and running up bills you did not authorize.
  
  
• Inquiries made: Every time you apply for any kind of loan or credit, the potential lender makes an inquiry, which is noted on your credit history. If you apply repeatedly, or to several institutions at a time, it can make lenders wary of your credit history. You need to be sure that all inquiries were legitimate results of your own requests, and not unauthorized, which may mean the inquirer broke the law.
  
  
• Inaccurate entries: The human error factor has not been eliminated by the use of computerized records. Data can be entered incorrectly, or information from another file may be posted to yours. Payments made, may not be recorded. Checking the CRAs' records against your own, will point out any inconsistencies.
  
  
• Payment record: If you are regularly mailing payments, you may be unaware that there are problems in the mail delivery system. Repeated late payments, and possibly even missed ones, may be lowering your credit status. Make sure all payments are present and accounted for.

The three large CRAs, charge differing fees for reports. And while they are all in the same business, their reports are not always the same. Each company uses a special formula to calculate your credit score. They will give you that score, but they will not tell you how it is arrived at. So when checking your credit history, order a report from the three largest CRAs:

Equifax
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
(800) 685-1111

Experian
P.O. Box 949
Allen, TX 75013
(800) 682-7654

Trans Union
760 West Sproul Road
P.O. Box 390
Springfield, PA 19064-0390
(800) 916-8800

Before you pay for a single or merged credit report (from all three CRAs), see if you qualify for a free report. Under certain circumstances, you are entitled to one free report in a given period. These would include:

• Residents of the following states by law, may receive one free report per year: Massachusets, Colorado, New Jersey, Vermont, Maryland. In Georgia you may request two.
  
  
• If you are denied credit by an institution that bases its decision on the report of a CRA, you may request a free copy of the report from the CRA named, within 60 days of the notice of refusal.
  
  
• If you are unemployed and looking for work.
  
  
• If you receive social assistance.
  
  
• If you believe that you are a victim of fraud