What Should I Look For In My Credit Report


There are several myths doing rounds around and prevent many gullible and young people from accessing their credit reports as will be necessary. So, this has led to disregarding of the credit reports by them and the lack of knowledge about the credit report management and what to check there especially.

“Get your credit report from the credit reporting companies annually, for free”

You don’t need to get the three free credit reports at the same time. The idea is to get them at 3 months’ interval which saves a good sum of money for you. Now look for important points that determine whether you are doing well with managing your finances, whether all that is entered in the report are accurate and current and whether the report really belongs to you.

Look for your address and other contact details (telephone numbers) and also notice that the social security number is correct. (You social security number will be hidden except for 4 digits if you specially requested.)

Look for new accounts opened without your knowledge! This is a reality many Americans are finding themselves in. They call this as identity theft. Someone steals your identity by credit card number or by social security number and uses it to shop around lavishly. You can’t ignore this point even if you didn’t open any new accounts. This can be disputed with the reporting agencies.

Look for all the payments you have made and whether they are printed against appropriate dates etc. Also check, whether there is a negative remark despite your timely payment. This can be possible by oversight or by wrong information supplied to the credit reporting agencies.

Your good accounts and bad accounts are listed separately. If you are not attentive here, you may loose track of the number of good accounts which might have slipped to the other side.

Check who has viewed your credit report. You can understand why they did so, if you had applied for loan or called quotes to buy something. Keep a watch on the viewers as well as the negative points, in case you have any, as to whether they will be removed sooner as they reach the 7th or 10th year.

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