Credit Report and Score FAQs

What's in a Credit Report?

Credit reports can seem like uncharted territory to anyone who's never seen one. The information in your credit report should be familiar to you, though. Mostly, it contains your personal information — name, current and addresses, Social Security number; public information about you — bankruptcies, liens, and other legal or financial matters; and data about your financial accounts — your current outstanding debt, late payments you may have made, and more. You'll find additional details in there as well that you can use to firm up your credit behavior, though, including notations about who's been viewing your credit report lately.

Learn more about credit reports.

How to Read Your Credit Report

Reading a credit report isn't a skill that you need to acquire or polish, but it does take some concentration. Ideally, you want to make sure that every last piece of information in your credit report is accurate, so you should spend some time looking it over carefully and thoroughly. Even free credit reports can contain errors, and those errors can drag down your credit score, which can cost you money in the long run. That's why it's crucial that you know how to read your credit report — and that you view all 3 credit reports frequently, particularly if you're in the market for a line of credit.

Learn how to read your credit report.

What Is a Credit Score?

A credit score is like a grade-point average: It offers a quick snapshot of how well you've managed your credit over the past seven to ten years. Based on the information in your credit report, it shows lenders, landlords, employers and others how responsibly you've managed your credit lines over time. You have quite a few credit scores, so you should find out what they are whenever you're considering a big purchase. Here's a tip when you're in the market for a loan: Few things are more useful than a credit score, but one of them is a FREE credit score.

Learn more about credit scores.

What Are The 3 Credit Bureaus?

TransUnion, Equifax and Experian are the three major credit reporting bureaus in the U.S. These for-profit companies gather data about your transactions from lending institutions, utility companies, public records and other sources. These three consumer credit bureaus use that information to create credit reports and credit scores that are used by a variety of institutions to judge how big a risk you are in paying off a line of credit. Because different organizations can rely on reports from different credit bureaus, it's important that you know who they are and how to contact them in case your credit reports contain inaccuracies.

Learn more about the three major credit bureaus.