If Someone Pulled
Your Credit Report
What Would They See?

Basically, credit reporting works like this: Banks, credit cards, bill collectors, landlords and other creditors provide the credit reporting agencies information about each of us as individual consumers. And from that information, those agencies create our credit history. Problem is the creditors and the credit reporting agencies can, and often do, make mistakes — mistakes that can cost us a fair amount of grief.

But there is a failsafe. Everybody has, in effect, their own caseworker assigned to their file to guard against errors. The caseworker who works on your file is you. That's right. You alone have the responsibility of disputing any inaccuracies in your credit report. Of course, you have to monitor your report to detect those errors. Click here to learn more about disputing a credit report and ordering your report today. In the meantime, here's a rundown of what you can generally expect to see when you get your credit report. While each of the three agencies has their unique report and looks different from each other, they generally contain the following categories:

Personal Information. Each report begins with your name, current address, previous addresses, date of birth, and current employer. Your Social Security might be on your report. Inaccurate information here could be a sign of identity theft, especially if your report has your address wrong. Also, all three reports give you an opportunity to file a personal statement. People often use these to explain something in the report to potential creditors.

Summary. This is a snapshot of your credit report. It can include the number of accounts you have, both open and closed. The summary might also break them down into categories such as: Number of open accounts, number of closed accounts, total amount of debt owed on all the accounts, total amount of monthly payments due to these accounts, and the number of derogatory accounts — those that are negatively affecting your credit.

Account History.Each account is broken down here starting with the account number and date the account was opened. The origination date is important because, generally speaking, the older your credit history the better. Closing old accounts can hurt your credit in the short term. This section also delves into the size, shape and condition of each account. Is it revolving debt as in a credit card? Or is it installment debt, as in a car loan? Or is it a mortgage tied to real estate? The credit limit for each account will be listed. Also included will be the amount you currently owe, the account standing and your payment history. If you see an account you don't recognize, this is a red flag for identity theft.

Inquiries. Perhaps the most interesting part of your credit report, is a list of who has viewed your credit report in recent years. If you don't recognize one of the inquiries — they are neither a current creditor nor someone to whom you've applied for credit — this could be another indication of fraud. Also, keep in mind, if your report has too many inquiries it can negatively affect your credit. Too many inquiries is an indication of someone aggressively seeking credit.

Public Information. These items are generated by public record, which includes legal items such as bankruptcy, unpaid tax liens, and even unpaid child support.

While those items make up the bulk of a credit report, they are by no means exhaustive. For more information, the best place to start is your own credit report.