What is a credit report?

What kind of information appears on a credit report?

How long do negative items stay on a credit report?

Can I see my credit report?

How much bad credit does it take to be denied credit?

Who looks at my credit report?

What is the difference between R1 and R9?

What is a charge off?

What kind of information appears on a credit report?

Aside from your personal information such as your name, address and employer, your credit reports contain four categories of listings that are used to generate your credit score.

Merchant Trade Lines
These include all regular credit lines such as department store cards, auto loans, mortgages, and credit cards. If there is any history of late payment, or if the trade line was included in bankruptcy, charged off, or put into repossession, the listing will be considered negative by all credit grantors.

Collection Accounts
When an account is referred to collections because of delinquency or because of a bad check, this appears on the credit report as a collection account. Collection accounts can appear as paid or unpaid accounts. Any type of collection account, whether paid or not, is considered very negative by all credit grantors.

Court Records
Court records include bankruptcies, judgments, liens, divorce, satisfied judgments, and satisfied liens. All court records, including satisfactions, are considered negative by all credit grantors.

Inquiries
Every time a potential credit grantor looks at your credit file, a credit inquiry appears on at least one of your credit bureau reports. If the numbers of inquiries are few over the last two years, then there may be no negative effect on your credit worthiness. However, if there are many recent inquiries showing on your credit report, credit grantors may become nervous and deny you credit.