How To Review Your Credit Report Like a Pro
Reviewing your credit report is essential to know about your personal finances. A credit report has lots of information that may feel overwhelming, but it helps you a lot to know about the financing. When people get their report, they wonder how to review your credit report like a pro. You’ll get your answers in this blog.
A credit report shows your financial activities. Properly reviewing your report will give you a better understanding of your finances. It may seem challenging to check credit reports, but breaking down the information can make it easier. It is just a detailed document with all your credit history to know your credit scores and helps to make financial decisions. Credit reports are a great help to make decisions for lenders and other companies.
Here are some tips that will help you to understand credit reports.
Check Personal Information
On the credit report, there will be your personal information, which includes your name, birth date, social security number, address, and phone number. The first thing you must do is to check your personal information is correct. Every part of the report is related to you. The report will be doubtful if you find any information that doesn’t relate to your information.
If you find any misspelled name of you or your spouse, or an incorrect address, or an incorrect security number, it all indicates that the report is confused with someone else’s report. You can get complete guidelines from New York Credit Repair.
Employer History
The next thing you’ll see in your report is the employer’s history. It is mentioned in your credit report to verify your employer information. If you find any data like incorrect designation or wrong name of your organization, it is a sign that your report is not right. Thoroughly read your information, and if you find any error, make sure to report it.
Credit History
On the credit report, you’ll see a detailed history of the credit. The credit history shows the credit score and payment history. Credit history has the most essential information that helps to determine the credit score. It is the section that needs special attention to read any errors in the report carefully. The credit history includes the following elements:
- Payment History
- Current Balance
- Current and Closed Accounts
- Credit Limit
- Loan Amount
- Names of Lenders and Creditors
- Account Status
- Account Closing and Opening Dates
Moreover, if you have closed the specific account or paid the loan, it will still show in your credit history. If there are any late payments or charged-off loans, it will show in negative credit.
Review Payment History and Account Details
After credit history, account details are essential information that needs to be checked. It includes account name, number, balance, and payment status. The information should be correct; if you find credit limits or information incorrect, it will harm your credit score. Below are the errors that you may experience while reviewing your credit report.
- Incorrect dates of account opening or closing and last payment.
- Payment reported as late if it was on time
- Incorrectly reported account in good standing
- The same account was mentioned multiple times under different creditors
- Closed Accounts are reported as Open Account
For a correct report, make sure all account information is about you. If you find your credit score isn’t correct, Credit Max Solutions is here for your help.
Public Records
In a credit report, there will be a section of public record that includes repossession, foreclosure, and bankruptcy. Bankruptcy details will be on the report for ten years, and other details will be present for seven years.
Such information can badly affect your credit score and show delinquency in the report. However, this section only includes financial status, but it can hurt the credit score. In case of a negative credit score, you may explain to the lender on the report why there is negative information on it.
Credit Inquiries
In a credit report, you’ll find a credit inquiry that showcases when and who accessed your financial information. In credit inquiry, there are two types:
- Soft Inquiry: It is an inquiry done by the owner. You can check your own credits and new creditors and companies who send approval offers.
- Hard Inquiry: Hard inquiries are more complex. It is held when a lender reviews your credit when you apply for a loan, mortgage, or credit card or ask for an increase in your credit card limit. Additionally, it can also be conducted when a recovery agency is looking for you.
However, soft inquiries are safe and don’t harm your credit score, but hard inquiries reduce the score when each of them is conducted. Hard inquiries are more important as they indicate risk to lenders. Therefore, if you find any unrecognized hard inquiry, you can file a dispute or request to remove the details of the inquiry removal.
Benefits of Reviewing Credit Report
After knowing how to review your credit report like a pro, now learn some of the benefits of reviewing credit reports.
- A credit report showcases an overview of your account and financial information.
- It shows a summary of how you managed your finances
- You may see affecting factors like late payments or incorrect information that are impacting credit score
- You can look for data that may indicate incorrect information
Your credit score is completely dependent on the credit report. To enhance your credit score, you need to know where your report stands and what is impacting your score. You can get it changed after knowing what is damaging your credit file.
Final Thoughts
There are better ways to show your account is active than showing sufficient balance on your credit card. If you find errors in your report that have harmed your credit score and are looking for a way to dispute errors, call us at 888-660-0641.
