What is a credit report?

Credit Report is a document of your financial life. It gives you a detailed account of your credit history. The three major nation wide bureaus namely the Experion, Equifax and the Trans Union assign you a credit score on the basis of the information included in your credit report.

Types of information that are included in your credit report are:

Personal information: Your credit report reveals some basic personal details about you .It includes:

· Your name

· Your current address and telephone number

· Your previous address

· Your marital status (and spouse's name, if applicable)

· Your Social Security number

· Your date of birth

Credit Information: Your credit information is the detailed information of your account status. Your credit report includes data about the number of credit accounts that are in your name or that list you as an authorized user with banks, credit-card issuers, retailers, utility companies, and other lenders. All your account details are basically accumulated by the credit bureaus from the respective financial institutions. The credit bureaus collect information on the following factors to display on your credit report.

1. Account number related with the account.

2. Terms of repayment.

3. Type of account

4. Date on which the account was opened.

5. High credit

6. Credit limit or loan amount

7. Current Balance

8. Punctuality of payment

9. Account status

10. Past due

11. Date reported

Public Record Information: Your credit report would also reveal whether you have ever gone through bankruptcies, foreclosures, monetary judgments, or tax liens.

Recent Inquiries: The credit report discloses information on all latest inquires made about you by several credit agencies

How to get a credit report?

The three famous credit bureaus namely Equifax, Experian and Trans Union are supposed to issue a free credit report to every citizen once in 12 months at your request according to the (FCRA) Fair Credit Reporting Act. Otherwise against a minimum amount you may obtain a copy of your credit report .While requesting a copy of the report you need to make sure to include your full name, all addresses you have used in the last 15 years with zip codes, your social security number and date of birth. You should also attach a copy of your driving license as a document for them to verify your address and identity. Approximately it takes 3-4 weeks for you to acquire your report finally.

Common errors in your credit report:

Once you receive your credit report first thing you need to do is to analyze your credit report thoroughly, to check that if there is any error in your report. Errors are very common in a credit report .The common mistakes that we may find in a credit report may be:

• Error in spellings e.g. in your name, spouse’s name, in the address or initials are very common so always check out these errors.
• Many a time’s inaccurate data in your account information or double entry of any account information affect your credit score to a great extent. Under such circumstances you might also be exempted from availing a loan that you are worthy of.
• Sometimes the credit bureaus overlook information that has to be included in your report and leads you to face harassment during further financial transaction.

How to rectify errors in a credit report?

If there are any errors in your report you can challenge the credit bureau by law. Under such circumstances:

• Immediately contact the credit bureau asking a written statement of the error that is to be sent to all the three credit bureaus.
• It is important to negotiate with all the three bureaus to guarantee the changes made by the company
• Keep photocopies of all the documents which support the changes that have been made.

Thus it can be said that a credit report is a valued document. So to obtain an accurate and clean credit report is very essential. A bad credit report is an indication of your poor financial status. Thereby, you should carefully monitor your credit on regular basis to acquire a clean credit report if you do not have one.