How to Read a Credit Report

Learning how to read a credit report can help you protect your own credit. Here are the basics of how to read a credit report successfully.

Identifying Information

Start out by looking at the identifying information on the report. In this section, you will see your name, Social Security number, and other personal information. It is important that you make sure that the identifying information is correct so that you know you are looking at the right credit report.

Credit History

The next section that you will need to look at is the credit history. This is a detailed summary of all of the credit accounts that you currently have. It will also show the credit accounts that you have had open for the last several years. It will tell when you opened the account, your payment history, and any comments that were left by the creditors.

Public Records

You will also need to take a look at the public records section. This part of the credit report keeps track of whether you have any judgments or collections against you.

Credit Inquiries

The last part of the credit report deals with the amount of credit inquiries that you have. This shows how many times you have tried to acquire credit recently.

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