Article kindly provided by Experian®

A consumer credit report is a document that outlines your existing debts and contains a factual record of an individual’s credit payment history. It includes data such as how much is outstanding on an account, what your credit limits are, and your repayment history. It also includes the names of companies that have recently inquired about your credit, public records including bankruptcies, judgments, and foreclosures. Depending on what your creditors and other sources have provided, your credit report also includes current and prior addresses, current and prior employment, and identification information such as date of birth, driver’s license number, and social security number.

Credit grantors are permitted by law to review your credit report to objectively determine whether to grant you credit. There are approximately 205 million credit-active people in the United States who have a charge account, car loan, student loan, or home mortgage. As those people pay their bills, most lenders report credit payment information to credit bureaus. So most of the information in your consumer credit report comes directly from the companies you do business with.

4 Types of Information.

There are four types of information in your credit report: identifying information, credit information, public record information, and inquiries.

Identifying information includes:
Your name
Your current and previous addresses
Your Social Security number
Your year of birth
Your current and previous employers
If you’re married, your spouse’s name

Credit information includes credit accounts or loans you have with:
Banks
Retailers
Credit card issuers
Other lenders

Public record information includes any information that’s contained in state and county court records, like:
Bankruptcies
Tax liens
Monetary judgments
Inquiries indicate to other credit grantors that you have applied for new credit that could result in additional debt. Potential lenders view multiple recent inquiries on your credit report as a sign that you are overextending yourself.

(A credit risk score may also be included when your report is provided to a credit grantor, although it is not included on consumer review reports. The ways to calculate and use a credit score vary widely, so a score has little meaning outside of the context of a particular lender’s unique guidelines for use. Therefore, it is not included on consumer review reports.)

For more information on obtaining a free credit report and credit score go to http://www.FreeCreditReport.com. A part of Experian®, one of the nation’s three major credit reporting companies, this site is a link to a variety of credit monitoring products.