What
Are Credit Reports Anyway?
We know a lot about our credit reports…right? Okay, if we're
honest, our credit reports are kind of like the Seven Wonders of
the World…out there somewhere; mysterious by nature, and every
once in awhile we decide we want to see one of them. But what is
a credit bureau and what exactly are all these lenders looking at?
Simply
put, a credit bureau is merely a clearinghouse for historical credit
information that lenders provide to various bureaus. In other words,
the lenders are filling out a report card on how well we pay our
bills. The bureau then assembles all this information, combines
it with public records obtained from courthouses nationwide, such
as tax liens, court judgments or bankruptcies, and assimilates the
information into a computer file on each consumer. In return, lenders
can obtain credit reports on consumers who want to open accounts
with them.
These
credit reports generally have four main categories of information:
Identity
Your full name
Your current and previous addresses
Your social security number
Your telephone number
Your date of birth
Your current and previous employers
Credit History
Your payment history with retail businesses
Your payment history with banks
Your payment history with finance companies
Your payment history with mortgage companies
Public Records
Tax liens
Court Judgments
Child Support Judgments
Bankruptcies
Bureau Inquiries
Lists of creditors or other authorized parties who have received
your credit report.
Computers sift through all these computer files and come up with
a credit score. Your credit score is a numeric indication of your
debt repayment likelihood. Lenders use this number as one determinate
in assessing how much of a credit risk you are. Credit scoring is
based on a variety of factors that may include:
Payment history
Available credit amount
Amount of credit your currently using
Your credit history length
Recent requests for credit
The scores are designed to indicate your creditworthiness in comparison
to other consumers. Credit scores are usually between 300 to 900.
The higher your score, the more "creditworthy" you are
to lenders.
Knowing
what's on your credit bureaus can be important to your creditworthiness.
Read "Will Running a Report Lower My Score" to learn more
about this.
Family
RV in San Jose, hope this helps!!
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