Laura Pennington  |  August 24, 2019

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Credit Report Overview

Your consumer financial behavior is tracked in a document known as a credit report. This information is collected and stored by credit bureaus, who provide details about your individual background when a business is deciding whether or not to extend you credit.

Credit Score

Your credit report is not the same as your credit score or FICO score. Your credit score is a formal number assigned to your case. This number is viewed as a key part of your overall picture of credit history, and it is the number most lenders are looking for when pulling your credit report.

The credit score takes numerous factors into account, including credit history, debts, payment history, and other factors included on your credit report. The higher your credit score and the closer it is to 850, the better this is for you from the perspective of getting additional lines of credit.

There are many different formulas used to arrive at a credit score, and running a report from each of the three major credit bureaus is recommended so that you can identify whether or not there are any errors.

Collections

When a business has passed on ownership of a certain debt, it can be placed with a collections agency. The job of the agency is to collect on the amount of money owed. Some of the most common things that get put into collections include medical bills, phone bills, credit card debts, and utility charges.

The borrower can be contacted via the mail and phone on behalf of a collections agency trying to make a recovery of that amount, but there are limits on phone calls thanks to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Collection records are important for those monitoring their credit since these can stay on a credit report for up to seven years beyond the 180 day period for late payment on that original debt.

Credit File

Another term that references all the information on your credit report is your credit file. This is usually the full length of your credit history as stored by the credit bureau, even though your most current credit report might not have all of the same details as your overall credit file.

Credit History

When someone runs your credit report, it is likely they are looking for information on your credit history. This means the same thing as your credit report – details about your individual history of taking out lines of credit, whether these are active or closed, and whether they were ever put into default or collections.

Potential employers who are including credit history as part of a background check have to let applicants know, under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Credit Accounts

On your credit report, a potential lender will find a variety of information about your payment background. This includes account balances, credit limits or amounts, creditor names, account payment history, and historical and current credit accounts that are maintained in your name. After the 7-year period has expired, this information should fall off your credit report.

Additionally, if there are errors on your credit report such as fraud from when someone else stole your identity, as the person referenced in that report, you have the responsibility to follow up with the bureau and to report errors.

One thought on What Is a Credit Report?

  1. REPORT SENIX A PATTERSON says:

    I GOT A CREDIT CARD IN 2009 AND THEY NEVER STARTED POSTED MY CREDIT TO THE MAJOR BUREAUS UNTIL LAST WEEK.MY CREDIT HAS BEEN SUFFERING ALL THIS TIME.I CALLED THE BANK A YEAR OR TWO AGO.THEY SAID THAT THEY DO NOT HAVE TO REPORT IT. I ASHED FOR A RAISE ON MY CARD THEY SAID NO. I TALKED TO AN EMPLOYER OF EXPERIAN AND THEY TOLD ME THEY DO HAVE TO REPORT MY CAINRD AND TOLD ME TO GET IN TOUCH WITH THE MAIN COMPANY OF THE CARD.WHICH I DID AND THEY SAID THEY WOULD INVESTIGATE IT. AFTER THAT MY SCORE JUMPED.NOW IS ANYTHING THAT I CAN DO TO MAKE UP FOR THE LOST TIME AND SUFFERING?

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