What is a credit report?

The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice. See Lexington Law’s editorial disclosure for more information.

While most people have heard of a credit report, they often still have many questions. What exactly is in the report? Where does that information come from? Why does a credit report even matter? How many credit reports do I have?

Most people have more than one credit report. The three major credit reporting companies, also referred to as credit bureaus, each maintain separate credit reports for nearly everyone with any credit history.

Your credit reports contain some personal information used to identify you, but the bulk of your reports consist of information about your past and present credit accounts, like loans or credit cards. The credit bureaus are provided this information by lending institutions, who in turn refer to credit reports when trying to decide whether to extend credit to someone.

A credit report may seem like a distant or complicated document, but the truth is that credit reports are easy to understand and access. And there’s a good reason to get your report and know how to read it: when you’re looking for any new credit—like a loan, a credit card or a mortgage—lenders will pull your report to determine your creditworthiness. It’s helpful to know what they are seeing.

Read on to learn exactly how to access your credit reports, see what’s included in them and understand what to look for as you read through them.

How can you access your credit reports?

You are able to get a free copy of your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus—TransUnion, Experian and Equifax—once each year by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com. This website is sponsored by the federal government, and it is a safe and free way to access your credit reports.

To access your report, you’ll need to provide some personal information and verify your identity. You can choose to access all of your credit reports at the same time or get a different report every few months.

How is your credit report used?

Your credit report is the basis of your credit score and is often used to judge how creditworthy you are. Lenders use your report to decide whether (and how much) to lend to you. The better your report makes you look, the more likely they’ll be to offer you credit with good terms.

Landlords and employers often take your credit report into consideration when deciding whether to lease to you or offer you a job. Likewise, your insurance rate might be higher or lower depending on how much risk your insurance company believes you carry.

What’s included in a credit report?

A credit report includes information about you and your credit accounts, including information like balances and payment history.

Your credit report includes the following:

• Personal information
• Credit history: accounts, balances and payment history
• Consumer statements
• Credit inquiries
• Public records
• Collection accounts

While your credit report is used to calculate your credit score, your score will not be found within the report itself. If you want to keep on top of your credit, there are many ways to check your score for free.

Keep reading to learn more about what your credit report contains.

Personal information

Your credit report contains personal information to identify you. You can expect to see all of the following details on your report:

• Names, former names, nicknames or aliases
• Current and former addresses
• Date of birth
• Social Security number

The credit bureaus and lenders use these details to ensure that only information pertaining to you ends up on your report. Other personal information—like income, marital status, race, ethnicity, religion or gender—are not relevant to the credit bureaus and are never included in your report.

Accounts, balances and payment history

Any credit account that you currently have or have closed within the last seven to 10 years will likely appear on your credit report. The listed credit accounts are often categorized by their type: revolving credit (credit cards), installment debt (loans), mortgage (home loan) and other (alimony or other debt obligations).

Accounts will generally include information about the name of the lender, the date the account was opened or closed and any other pertinent details like credit limit or loan amount.

In addition, you’ll be able to see the account balances as well as payment history. Keep in mind that credit reports aren’t updated in real time, so you may see a balance for a card or loan that you recently paid.

Consumer statements

Your credit report also contains consumer statements submitted by you. These statements allow you to provide context for a negative item on your credit report or disagree with an item that you’ve already disputed unsuccessfully.

Credit inquiries

Whenever your credit report is checked, an inquiry is noted on your credit report. Inquiries are broken down into two types: soft inquiries and hard inquiries.

Hard inquiries occur when a lender checks your report as part of an application for new credit. This type of inquiry is more important to monitor, as too many hard inquiries in a short period of time can lower your score.

Soft inquiries, on the other hand, have no effect on your credit score and can simply be reviewed for accuracy. These inquiries occur for a variety of reasons, like if you use a free credit score monitoring service or get pre-approval for a mortgage.

Public records

Public records directly related to your credit usage are also included in your report. Bankruptcy and foreclosure are the most common public records that appear on credit reports.

Other public records that could be listed include civil suits, judgments, child support payments and liens.

Collection accounts

Any account that is overdue and has been sent to a collection agency will be noted on your credit report. In general, accounts are sent to collections when they are unpaid for 30 to 120 days or more.

Why is your credit report important?

Credit reports are important because they provide the basis for your credit score, which is used by lenders to make decisions about whether to offer you a loan or credit card.

Each of the five factors that are used to determine your credit score can be traced back to information in your credit report. Here’s how your score is calculated:

• Payment history (35 percent): Your credit report contains detailed information about your payment history for all of your open and recently closed accounts. Making payments on time and in full is the single biggest factor in having a higher credit score.
• Amounts owed (30 percent): Your credit report shows how much credit you’ve been offered as well as how much debt you currently have. Lenders look to your credit report to see that you aren’t leaning too heavily on credit to manage your finances.
• Length of credit history (15 percent): Your credit report details how long you’ve been using credit. In general, the longer you’ve been using credit responsibly, the more favorably potential lenders view you.
• Credit mix (10 percent): Your credit report catalogs the different kinds of credit you have. Having a mix of credit accounts—like loans, credit cards and a mortgage—signals to lenders that you can manage many types of credit successfully, as long as they are in good standing.
• New credit (10 percent): Your credit report highlights your hard inquiries, so lenders can see exactly how often you’re applying for new credit. Limiting your new credit applications can help keep your score up.

Knowing what’s on your credit report means knowing what lenders see when they’re considering your credit application. If you’re hoping to get an auto loan, a new credit card or a mortgage in the future, it’s important to stay on top of your credit report.

What to look for when reviewing your report

After scanning through your report, you’ll want to take a closer look to ensure that it’s accurate. Any errors on your credit report could lead to an unnecessary drop in your credit score, so now is the time to catch mistakes.

Fortunately, there is a process to have mistakes removed from your credit report. Here are the errors you should be on the lookout for:

• Accounts that don’t belong to you: Either through a simple error or a bigger problem like identity theft, you could have accounts listed on your report that you didn’t open. Note the date each of the accounts was opened as well as the lenders to verify they belong to you.
• Inaccurate balances: You may have an account with a balance that you’ve already paid. While there is a delay in your report being updated, if you notice a balance on an account you paid a while ago, you’ll need to take a closer look.
• Payments incorrectly listed as missing or late: If your payment history is marred by late or missing payments you know you made, it’s important to dig deeper.

If you have evidence that inaccurate information has made its way onto your credit report, you’ll want to begin the process of filing a dispute with the credit bureau that published the report. Many people choose to get support with the dispute process to take away the burden of communicating with the credit bureaus directly.

The team at Lexington Law Firm has experience working with the credit bureaus to address errors on credit reports, so consider reaching out to our credit repair consultants if you need support.

Now that you’ve got a handle on where to get your credit report, how to read it and why it’s important, you’re ready to keep working toward your credit goals one step at a time.

Reviewed by Nature Lewis, Associate Attorney at Lexington Law. Written by Lexington Law.

Before joining Lexington Law as an Associate Attorney, Nature Lewis managed a successful practice representing tenants in Maricopa County.

Through her representation of tenants, Nature gained experience in Federal law, Family law, Probate, Consumer protection and Civil law. She received numerous accolades for her dedication to Tenant Protection in Arizona, including, John P. Frank Advocate for Justice Award in 2016, Top 50 Pro Bono Attorney of 2015, New Tenant Attorney of the Year in 2015 and Maricopa County Attorney of the Month in March 2015. Nature continued her dedication to pro bono work while volunteering at Community Legal Services’ Volunteer Lawyer’s Program and assisting victims of Domestic Violence at the local shelter.

Nature is passionate about providing free knowledge to the underserved community and continues to hold free seminars about tenant rights and plans to incorporate consumer rights in her free seminars. Nature is a wife and mother of 5 children. She and her husband have been married for 24 years and enjoy traveling internationally, watching movies and promoting their indie published comic books!

Note: Articles have only been reviewed by the indicated attorney, not written by them. The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only. Use of, and access to, this website or any of the links or resources contained within the site do not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship between the reader, user, or browser and website owner, authors, reviewers, contributors, contributing firms, or their respective agents or employers.