What Is In Your Free Annual Credit Report?

There are several kinds of information that you’ll find in your free annual credit report. All the information will be the creditor’s basis for deciding whether to grant you new credit or not, or whether to make changes to a plan or service that you’re currently subscribed to.

It is important that you periodically get and review your free annual report to make sure that all information reported in it is accurate. Inaccurate information and information that is not yours will result in a less than perfect picture of your credit and could pull down your credit score.

How you’ve managed your credit accounts. This is probably the most important section of your credit report. This section contains information about each of your credit accounts and the current account balance, type of account, payment status, minimum amount due per month, whether you’ve ever been delayed in making payments, and whether your account has been sent to a collection agency.

Information from public records. This includes information about bankruptcy, tax liens placed on your assets, foreclosure or repossession of your assets. If you’ve ever been arrested or indicted, that will show up in this section. This section also includes information on money judgments — if you’ve ever been ordered by a court to pay someone as a result of a lawsuit.

Inquiries into your credit report. Any inquiries from creditors, employers, insurance companies, or other companies that requested your credit report will appear here. The information in this section lists inquiries for your credit report that were made in the past two years. Credit inquiries – also known as voluntary or hard inquiries – will be seen by anybody who requests for your credit report. Employment-related inquiries, those that appear as a result of your subscription to a credit monitoring service, your requests for your own free annual credit report, and those from your existing creditors will be seen only by you.

Your identifying information. This is where your name, address, Social Security number, and employment history will appear. Any names that you have used in the past – an alias, your maiden name, or your name with a Jr., Sr., or II or III at the end are included here. Addresses will include your current and any past addresses that you have lived in. In addition, the type of residence you live in – whether it’s a single or multi-family home – may also be listed, depending on which credit reporting agency generated your report. If you’re married, information about your spouse will be listed here, especially if he/she shares a credit account with you or is an authorized user of your individual account. Your employment information will include the names of your current and past employers, as well as your salary information for each job.

The importance of your annual report is such that this report could be the single deciding factor for whether you’ll be approved for a loan, especially when you need it most. Don’t wait till the last minute before reviewing and cleaning up your credit report. You can read more about how to obtain your annual credit report for free on our site, where you’ll also find information about how to raise your credit score and rebuild your credit picture.