Your Credit Report and What Your Creditors Have to Say
If you’ve gotten a copy of your credit report, or are looking for your bad credit, you may find you have trouble figuring out what you are even looking at. In order to determine if you need help from a credit repair company such as DSI Credit Repair you should know how to read your report. Credit reports are divided into a few different sections to help make the reports easier to read and understand. The order of these sections and their format will vary, depending on the credit reporting agency and how the credit report was obtained.
All consumer credit reports begin with a “Report Summary.” This will include your name, your Report Number, and the date your report was issued. You’ll also find a short Summary of the potentially negative and positive accounts found within the report. Each item listed on your credit report is called a Trade Line. These things could include a mortgage, car loan, student loan, credit card, charge card, or other type of loan. For each Trade Line, you will see a description on your credit report, which will include:
The creditor’s name. The name of the creditor or collection agency that has reported the information to the credit reporting agency.
The creditor’s address. The mailing address of the creditor.
The creditor’s phone number. The phone number you should use to contact the creditor to make a payment.
Account number. The number associated with your account or loan. It may show your loan number, credit card number, or identification number.
Status/remark. This shows the current status of the account. It may show “Open/Current”, “Paid As Agreed”, “Collection Account”, “Paid, Closed/Never Late”, Account closed at consumer’s request”, Paid in settlement”, “Placed for collection”, “Closed”, or some other variation that tells whether the account is active or in good standing. If you see “Open/Current” as the status, it means the account is open, active, paid up-to-date, and is in good standing. This is the ideal status you want for each account on your credit report.
Date opened. The date the account was first opened.
Type. The type of account my read “Revolving,” “Credit Card,” “Collection,” “Automobile,” “Mortgage,” or “Installment.
Reported since. The date the credit reporting agency first received information about this account.
Monthly payment. The monthly payment you are responsible for will typically be here depending on the type of account.
Recent balance. The most recent balance you owe on the account.
Last Reported. This is the date the creditor last reported information about the account to the credit reporting agency.
Responsibility. This shows whether it’s an individual or joint account and who is responsible for it.
Recent payment. The amount of the last payment that was received.
Account history. A summary of the account status on a month-by-month basis, typically over a several year period if possible.
Figuring out what needs to happen next.
If you’re like a huge percentage of the U.S. population, chances are you’ll find some negative information listed on your credit reports, or incorrect information all together. This is where hiring a credit repair company such as DSI Credit Repair can be extremely helpful. Obtaining a credit repair company’s help can help to fix mistakes on your credit report that are hurting your credit score. DSI Credit Repair has an excellent 6 month service that allows you to be completely hands-off during the process. Before contacting them, if you are already looking at your report, it can also be helpful to make some changes that you can on your own. (i.e. paying outstanding debt or changing your spending habits so you’ll be able to pay your bills on time in the future) We will further examine ways help your credit score in upcoming blogs.
