Credit report information is interpreted easily by those in the credit field: lenders, credit card companies and banks. A normal person may have difficulties understanding the credit reports provided by any of the credit rating agencies. The credit reports provided by EquiFax, TransUnion and Experian are often in form of clean credit report that is easy to understand. It still includes some credit lingo which can be confusing. Though the credit reports contain an annexure to codes, you can also check out the Internet to find the meaning of the credit report codes.
How to Read a Credit Report?
A credit report from EquiFax, TransUnion or Experian would have five sections normally
- Personal Information: Contains personal details of the person whose credit report is being read.
- Public Record Information: Contains the general public details about the person whose credit report is being studied.
- Collection Agency Account Information: This section offers information about the collection agency or agencies that might have opened one or more accounts pertaining to the person whose credit report is being analyzed.
- Credit Account Information: This section covers the details on the different loans and credit card accounts taken by the person whose credit report is being studied. The loans and credit accounts can be new and old ones that have been or have not been paid.
- Inquiries: This section offers details about the different credit enquiries into the different account held by the person whose credit report is being studied. In other words, whenever a person applies for credit card or loan, the credit reporting agency receives a request for a credit report about the person who applied for credit or loan. All such data forms this section. Reading this section, one can know who all contacted the credit reporting agency for the person’s details.
Disputing Credit Report
The Fair Credit Reporting allows you to dispute anything that you find is wrongly stated in the credit report. All of the three credit rating agencies - EquiFax, TransUnion and Experian – depend upon different persons and institutions to obtain data about you for creating your credit report. Sometimes, the persons and/or institutions may send incorrect information due to which, your credit report may show up bad information.
To correct such incorrect data, you have to contact the credit reporting institution that has sent you a credit report containing incorrect data. When contacting, you have to send some proof backing your claim. That is, your dispute should contain:
- Cover letter that states where in the credit report is the data incorrect (example, section 1 – item 4)
- Copy of documents backing up your claims (NEVER send the originals)
The above should be mailed to the reporting agency whose report contains error(s). That means, more than often, Experian, TransUnion or EquiFax. In some case, more than one institution may have provided incorrect data so you will have to mail to all three. While mailing, make sure you are sending data through secure post requesting a delivery receipt.
