How to Check Your Credit Report and Rating

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Your credit can affect everything from your bills to your car loan and your ability to get your dream apartment, so you should probably know what your loan looks like. If you are unsure how to get a copy of your assessment or report, we can help you.

Whether you like it or not, credit matters . This is also difficult. In our All You Need to Know About Loans series, we cover the basics.

Your report is more important than your rating

Let’s be clear about one thing: your credit report and your credit rating are not the same thing.

Your report is a history of all of your credit accounts, from bank credit cards to student loans to the NY & Co. card that you opened when you got your first “real” job out of college and wanted some good fundamentals.

When a lender, homeowner, or mortgage company retrieves a copy of your report, they see this story, which also tells them if you defaulted on your loan, were late on your card, or paid everything off on time every month.

On the other hand, your result is just a snapshot of this report. It’s like an appraisal. If your report looks good, you will have a good “grade” – maybe 740 or higher. If your report is bad, you will have a bad “score” – probably something like 550. Your score is an indicator of what really matters: your past and present relationship with credit.

When a scoring company like FICO calculates your score, they look at different parts of your report to get that number. We tend to get hung up on credit ratings because they are very easy to understand: 800 is good. 500 is bad . But, as Investopedia explains , it is your report that is really important .

“Even if you hear more about your FICO credit rating, your consumer credit report is a more detailed, complete and important part of your financial identity. Your credit report matters more to most lenders, and it probably should matter more to you … The information that goes to the credit bureau and appears on your credit report is the basis for determining your credit rating. “

Yes, companies can use your rating to assess your creditworthiness or decide whether to rent an apartment to you. And yes, they can make general decisions based on that number. But here’s the thing: if your report is good, your grade should be good. (Also, when your credit card company or landlord retrieves your credit report, it doesn’t automatically come with an estimate. They must request this separately.)

There has been a lot of attention lately on credit ratings and how they can be hacked, and while it is possible to “hack” your account and boost it, it feels like fixing the symptoms of the problem rather than the problem itself . Many companies will offer you a variety of credit cards to “boost” your account, regardless of the impact it might have on your spending habits.

Don’t get me wrong, your credit rating matters, but it’s more important to get a clear idea of ​​what your credit actually looks like, and that’s what your report is for. Luckily, it’s easy and free!

How to get a (free) copy of your report

You are entitled to receive a free copy of your credit report annually from each of the three major bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The official and easiest way to do this is at AnnualCreditReport.com . You enter some personal details and you get a breakdown of everything: your car loan, any medical debt, old credit cards you forgot about.

Your credit reports from each bureau will look slightly different because these three companies are separate from each other. They do everything in their own way. In addition, there are no federal requirements for companies to report to all three bureaus, so some may have information that others do not. (This is why it is so important to receive a copy of the report from each of the three companies every year .)

How to read your report

That said, the information in your report is organized very similarly. If this is your first time reading the report, this is probably discouraging.

Basic anatomy of a credit report

Most of the information in your report is grouped into four main categories. They can be called a little differently, but these are the following categories:

  • Personal information
  • Information about public records
  • Lender information
  • Loan inquiries

Your personal information is pretty self-explanatory: your name, any aliases you have used, your social security number, addresses, and so on. Your publicly available information will include any legal issues such as bankruptcy, liens, withholdings, and court decisions (although there have been some recent changes to tax withholding reporting , we will come back to this later). According to CreditCards.com , if you view the TransUnion report, you will also see the estimated deletion date for each item.

Lender information is the basis of your report and includes all of your existing lines of credit. Did you neglect the debt and it was transferred to a collection agency? This information will also be included. Each line of credit will include some basic details:

  • Account status: current / open, closed, written off (sent to collections)?
  • Account responsibility: is it a shared or individual account?
  • Your Account Balance: Your balance at the time of reporting.
  • Your last payment
  • Overdue information, if applicable
  • Your credit limit

If you have any accounts that could damage your credit history, they will be completely in a separate section, usually referred to as “adverse accounts” or “potentially negative items”. If you have an account in this section, you may have a late payment, an outstanding balance, or the account may be sent to fees. Even if you are aware of your payments for this account, it may still be in this section, haunting you.

And there are also questions about loans. In this section, you will find people or companies who have viewed your credit report. This could be a mortgage lender if you are applying for a home loan, or a retail store if you applied for a credit card with them. This is called “hard requests” or “hard requests” and if you have too many of them at the same time it can sometimes lower your score, but this is temporary.

There are also “soft pulls”. This is when you take your own credit report or the credit card company “pre-approves” you for the card. The soft pull does not affect your credit.

What do the different codes mean

You may see several seemingly random “codes” on your credit report that don’t make any sense. Here are some of the more common codes and their meanings, according to Bankitis :

  • CURR ACCT : A valid account with a good reputation
  • CUR WAS 30-2: The account is valid, but twice 30 days late.
  • PAID : account balance paid, inactive
  • CHARGOFF: unpaid balance has been written off, the originator is no longer looking for the balance (probably sent to a collection)
  • COLLECT : Account has seriously expired and has been submitted to Collections
  • FORECLOS : The property was seized
  • BKLIQREQ : Debt Forgiveness Through Chapters 7, 11, Or 13
  • DELINQ 60 : Account 60 days late

Appeal any errors

If you believe your report is buggy or worse, fraudulent, file a dispute. This is why it is so important to check your report every year. If you see an open account and you know for sure that you have never opened it, this could be a red flag for identity theft.

Every credit reporting agency allows you to file a dispute online. According to Bankrate , when you order a report, TransUnion and Equifax offer a dispute resolution form mailed to you, and Experian offers one on the last page of Experian’s customer credit report. You can also mail it to Equifax and TransUnion:

Equifax

1-866-238-8067 Equifax Disputes Box 740256 Atlanta, GA 30374-0256 Equifax Disputes

TransUnion

1-800-916-8800 TransUnion Disputes 2 Baldwin Place, PO BOX 1000 Chester, PA 19022

Here is a detailed guide we wrote to dispute bugs. The FTC also offers sample dispute letters .

You can’t have just one grade

Even if you’ve looked at your report and you know what you’re capable of, checking your grade can be interesting (and quite fun if you’re a money nerd).

However, keep in mind that you don’t just have one credit rating . You have hundreds of them because there isn’t just one credit rating company. Also, different companies use different scoring models depending on which loan you are taking. Your mortgage lender may have their own model!

Different ratings also have different ranges. Some go up to 850; others go up to 990 and above. So when you say, “My credit rating is 800,” it technically doesn’t mean much unless you know what you are talking about.

However, when most people talk about credit ratings, they mean your overall FICO score, which ranges from 300 to 850. According to LearnVest , these are the lenders most likely to use it. And here’s what the numbers mean:

  • 800+: Excellent
  • 740 to 799: very good
  • 670 to 739: Medium, Acceptable
  • 580 to 669: Satisfactory
  • 579 and below: Bad

If you are checking your score in two different places and it is very different, first look at what the score is (it might be VantageScore, which is a completely different scoring company, although their ranges are similar) and then research the range in which they are used. …

Overall, however, your grades should be roughly the same. If they differ, it may be a different calculation or other information that is sent to the bureau from which they receive. I hate to sound like hardwired vinyl, but that’s why it is very important to check your report: if there is a problem somewhere, your report will reflect it. Your result is just a number.

Where to find your grade

So how do you even get a copy of your score? It’s easier than ever, which is probably why people are now obsessed with their grades. Chances are, your bank offers a free view of your account every month. Here are a few banks or credit card companies:

  • Barclaycard : You can see your FICO score online for free. They can also send you an email if your account changes.
  • First Bank Card: If you have a credit card with First National Bank, you can get a free copy of their FICO 8 score, the same score they use to manage your account.
  • Discover : Discover cardholders receive a free copy of their FICO score on their monthly statement.
  • The One Card Capital : holders of cards have access to the instrument for monitoring the loan tracker, which uses your credit report TransUnion, to give you your own unique “credit rating of the tracker.” According to the site

If your bank doesn’t offer this, or you just want another result, there are many online tools that allow you to do this for free:

  • Credit Sesame : We’ve already discussed Credit Sesame tools before. They are known for their free monthly credit rating and monitoring. They use your Experian rating.
  • Quizzle : Quizzle provides you with a free copy of your VantageScore and Equifax credit report. Of course, no credit card is required.
  • Mint : If you are a mint user, you can get a free copy of your score from Equifax along with a free summary of your report.
  • WalletHub : They have their own scoring model based on your TransUnion report. They also offer a free copy of this report and give you advice on how to improve your credit history.
  • Credit Karma : We named Credit Karma as one of our favorites because they offer so many cool features to help protect you from identity theft.

In all of these places, you really need to transfer your personal information in order for them to receive your data. Another caveat: there are many “free credit rating” scams out there that trick you into using your monthly subscription (shakes his fist at FreeCreditReport.com). Beware of these red flags:

  • Requesting credit card information
  • We offer a “free trial” period
  • Some kind of “subscription” is required
  • Sending you unwanted attachments or links by email

The FTC has some more details on credit repair scams here . While some credit repair companies are legitimate (they usually just scan your report for errors), there are many scammers out there . For example, if a credit repair company promises to immediately raise your score by 100 points, stay away.

What does your credit rating mean?

So, we’ve covered in detail what “good” and “bad” mean in terms of your assessment, but what does this actually mean in the real world? As one reader asked:

I said before that improving your credit history is more about not sucking, but to recap, you don’t need great credit, you just need to be good enough. And I say this as someone with a great reputation. For me it brought nothing more than a good reputation. When I bought the house, they took out a loan from my husband, which was good, but not great. When he decided to lease the car, I asked if my excellent loan could get a better deal, and the salesman chuckled and actually said, “It doesn’t really matter.”

Here’s how Forbes author Adam Levine put it :

The idea of ​​”playing out” your already excellent credit rating in order to raise it won’t do you any real significant benefit – the difference between the interest rates or loan terms offered to people with 800 and those offered to people with the elusive 850. So games don’t help anything other than your ego.

In other words, as long as your credit is not terrible, you will receive the same level of privilege as good as well as excellent. Good credit more means no bad credit, so you can:

All changes on credit

Finally, it would be remiss not to point out the recent changes in the credit scoring industry.

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion recently decided to change their reporting standards for tax liens and civil court decisions on credit reports. If the data does not include a complete listing of a person’s name, address, social security number, or date of birth, they will not be included. This is important because, like other negative points, paid tax liens remain on a person’s record for seven years .

Changes have also been made to the medical debt report. Beginning in September, the three bureaus will provide a 180-day “cooling off period” before any medical debt is reported on the credit report. Medical arrears are often reported before insurance companies have time to pay them, which gives the impression that clients are in arrears, but in reality they are not. The new rule gives consumers or insurers enough time to pay these bills before they go to fees. The bureau will also remove medical debts that are paid by insurers after 180 days.

There are also some changes that VantageScore is undergoing, a scoring model that is not as widespread as FICO, but is still widely used. USA Today reports :

The biggest change is the use of so-called trend data. This phrase means that credit ratings will take into account the dynamics of the borrower’s debt by month. So the person who pays off the debt is now likely to get more points than the person who makes the minimum monthly payments but is slowly accumulating credit card debt.

The new rating will also punish you for having “overly high” credit card limits, which might be bad news for people with old, unused credit cards that are still open, or people who like to open credit cards for rewards. These changes are expected to be introduced this fall. This change could mean that many of the tricks and tricks we use to improve our ratings could backfire, further emphasizing the importance of your reporting on your rating.

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