Reading your credit report

There is a lot of information crammed into each and every credit report. The task of reading one may seem impossible. But if you carefully examine your report, and follow the helpful points in the accompanying booklet you will begin to make sense of what is contained therein. Also, don't be shy about using the toll-free number provided at the top of the report. If you find yourself really stuck, call the bureau.

Make sure that each item is accurate and correct. Pay special attention to the account number, name of lender or creditor, date when account was opened, balance, and credit rating. This is quite an involved process, so don't lose heart. Interpret one entry at a time. Keep in mind as well that each of the three bureaus employs a different method of reporting. This is why the accompanying booklet is really handy. However, to make this task a little easier, we shall look at all the codes that these reports use, in order to familiarize you with what they mean.

The important features in every report are: Bankruptcy, judgment, tax liens, suits, wage assignments, charge-offs, checkpoints, past-due accounts, and foreclosures. These are items that give lenders alarm; these are entries they do not like to see. It is precisely these types of negative or derogatory entries that we will concentrate on removing.

Now let us look at how the information is displayed in a credit report. The trend among credit bureaus is to make these reports easier to read, but they all still lean to the cryptic. Each entry is referred to as a "field". The next section will make your credit report far easier to read.

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The Equifax Credit reprot