How Can Your Personal Credit Report Help?

Your personal credit report can also help you identify information about your most recent debts. If you are in debt and looking for a debt consolidation program your counselor needs to know the most recent information that is being reported on your personal credit report.

Here are three things to check when you receive your personal credit report:

Identification Information: Make sure all of the information listed about you in your personal credit report, such as your name, address, Social Security number, etc. is accurate and up-to-date.

Credit Inquiries: Make sure all of the listed inquiries in your personal credit report were authorized. Denials can result in the refusal to extend further credit. If there are unauthorized inquiries, write to the credit bureau and to the company that made the inquiry informing them that you did not authorize the inquiry and to remove it from your credit file. Potential creditors can regard too many inquiries within a short period of time (30-60 days) as a negative.

Accounts and Credit History: This section of your personal credit report shows your accounts with creditors and your payment history with them. It is important to read this entire section and make sure the information is complete and has been reported correctly. All open accounts remain on your file with payment history for an indefinite time. You can close accounts you no longer use by making a request in writing to the credit grantor. Please note that closed accounts will continue to appear on your credit report for up to 7 years from the date of the last activity. Any errors you find in the report should be reported to the credit bureau so they can be investigated and corrected.