Types of Reports
There are two types of credit reports.
Consumer version – This lists all activities and inquiries including promotional inquiries, account numbers and account management inquiries.
Business version – The business version is an abbreviated version of the consumer version. It just shows your basic credit category data.
The Four Categories
There are four categories of information in each credit report:
* Personal information
* Credit history
* Public records
* Inquiries
1. Personal information
Your name, address, social security number, date of birth, addresses, employers, and so on.
2. Credit history
This is usually a list of all accounts for the past ten years, and activity on those accounts. Accounts include credit cards, bank loans and so forth. Details include account numbers, credit limits, current balances, when accounts were opened and/or closed, late payments, and so on.
3. Public records
Public records include:
* Tax liens
* Bankruptcies
* Court judgments (including child support judgments)
4. Inquiries
A credit report’s inquiries section includes a listing of creditors, or authorized users, who have requested a copy of a consumer’s credit report. There are three types of inquiries:
* Normal inquiries – Creditors view your report to determine if you are a good candidate for lending. These are counted as official inquiries.
* Promotional inquiries – Companies ask for a list of people who might be a good fit for a 0% APR offer, for example. This is not an official inquiry.
* Account management inquiries – Creditors have permission to review the credit reports of their account holders from time to time. These are not official inquiries, so will not affect your credit score.
Annual Check-Up
Get your free reports and set aside some time to check them to ensure they are accurate. Report anything that looks wrong. Investigations are usually concluded within 30 days of the date that notification was received.
If the data is wrong, the creditor in question must make the correction and notify the other major credit reporting agencies of the error.
If the disputed information cannot be verified within 30 days, the disputed item is deleted, or updated. If the disputed information is verified later, it will be added back or updated.
