How to Read Your Credit Report

Beginner: What Is on the Report

Where to get it free

The official free source is annualcreditreport.com, the site set up for the three bureaus to give you your reports. It is genuinely free and does not require a subscription.

Because each bureau keeps its own file, you have three reports. Pull all three, or space them out through the year so you check in regularly.

The main sections

A credit report generally has a few parts. There is your personal information, like your name and addresses. There are your accounts, sometimes called tradelines, showing each card and loan. There is public record and collections information. And there is a list of inquiries, meaning who has pulled your credit.

Every bureau formats it a bit differently, but those pieces are the backbone of any report.

Reading a single account

For each account you will see the lender, the type, when you opened it, the limit or original loan amount, the current balance, and the payment history month by month.

That payment history is the heart of it. It shows whether each month was paid on time or reported late. This is the record your score leans on most.

Score is not on the report

One thing that surprises people: your report usually does not contain your score. The report is the raw record, and the score is calculated separately from it.

So you pull your report to see the details, and you check a service like Credit Karma to see a score. Two different things, both worth looking at.