How to Read a Credit Report

Your credit report is like a financial report card. It breaks down your credit history into four main categories – Personal Information, Credit Accounts, Inquiries and Public Records. Look through each of these sections for errors or things you don’t recognize and contact the respective credit bureau through its online dispute center with any inaccuracies. Here’s what to look for in each section:

Personal Information

This section confirms your identity.

Review your legal name, current and past addresses, date of birth and social security number. Any typos, misspelled names or wrong addresses could be early warning signs of identity theft.

Credit Accounts (Tradelines)

This is a listing of all your active and closed credit cards and loans over the past 7 to 10 years.

Look through this carefully and notice the creditor’s name, the account status, the date opened and the date closed. Check that the current balances and credit limits match your most recent billing statements. And look for rows of “1” or green checkmarks to indicate you have “paid as agreed.” Watch closely for numbers like 30, 60, or 90, which indicate how many days a payment is past-due. And check for abbreviates like CO (Charge-off) or C (Collections), which indicate debt delinquency.

Inquiries

When you apply for credit or your credit report is pulled for any reason, it is logged here as either a “hard” or “soft” inquiry.

Hard inquiries occur when you apply for a new loan or credit card, and too many of these within a year or two can temporarily drop your credit score. Soft inquiries happen when you check your own credit score, or when lenders pull your information from the credit bureaus to send you pre-approved offers like credit card mailings. These soft inquiries do not impact your credit score.

Public Records

This section contains information on financially harmful events, such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, civil judgments, and tax liens. These significantly impact your credit score and remain on your report for 7 to 10 years.

How to get your credit report

Get your free credit report through the Annual Credit Report Website or request one by calling 1-877-322-8228 or requesting one by mail at Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. You can request a report as often as once every four months to monitor your credit regularly.

Take a quick peek at your credit score and report any time with My Credit Manager in the CNB Mobile Bank app. Review your accounts, see alerts and get debt analyses at your fingertips.