Credit Report Information

To learn about your credit report information, you need to understand what is and what is not included in your report.

Your personal information- Every time you give away your personal information in the credit applications, that information ends up in your credit report. This information may include your name, address, social security number, date of birth and employers (current or previous). If you misspell your name in one of the credit applications, duplicate names may appear in your credit report information.

Your credit history- This information includes the credit accounts that you opened in your name, or co-signed as authorizer for a lesser credit worthy individual. The account activities and details which may include the date account was opened, the account credit limit, the balance, payments schedules or terms, or the manner by which the account is being paid (whether timely or not) are provided to the 3 agencies by your creditors and listed in your credit report as such. Closed or inactive accounts are also listed and will remain listed for a long time (up to 11 years) depending on whether the account was closed because you paid off the balance on time, did not use the revolving credit account, or just simply went to collection without recovery. This information must be monitored to detect potential identity theft cases.

Requests from creditors who buy and view your credit report are recorded as “inquiries” in your credit report. These inquiries may negatively impact your credit score if they appear to be excessive. Monitor these inquiries and make sure you have either authorized these inquiries or that they are related to your credit applications. Monitoring this area can also help you detect identity theft.

Public records such as bankruptcies, liens or overdue child support may appear on your credit report and stay there for as long as 7 years.

The information excluded from your credit report include credit score, criminal records, bank accounts, bankruptcies older than 10 years, charged-off or collection accounts older than 7 years, your gender, ethnicity, religion, and medical history.

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