What Type of Information is on a Credit Report?

Credit reports are important tools that creditors and lenders use to evaluate whether to offer someone credit.

The reports catalog a lot of different financial information, as well as some personal information, but there are some things a credit report can not include.

For example, credit reports can not include information about gender, religion, or sexual orientation.

This might sound like a no brainer, but up until the 1970's, credit reports often contained a great deal of unnecessary information, which gave way to many discriminatory lending practices.

However, with the passage of the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1971, credit reporting agencies are held to a much higher standard and can not include discriminatory information.

Today, the information that is allowed to be included with a credit report can be broken down into four distinct sections.

This includes the persons name and any aliases they have used, in addition to their social security number, current address, and past addresses. The date of birth and employment history is also included. The same type of information is usually also included about the persons spouse.

This includes any debt, including rolling debt like credit cards, that the person might have. It also includes information from retailers, utility companies, and other businesses that report their information to the credit agencies.

In the case of loans and mortgages, additional information, such as the cosigner and payment history, are also included in the credit report. Typically a two year payment history is provided.

There are a number of public records that are included in a credit report. This includes tax liens, civil judgments, and bankruptcies.

The credit agencies also report who else has recently accessed the credit report. Usually they only report the last year, although employers can see two years. Too many requests can make creditors leery and is also sometimes the first sign of identity theft.

While a great deal of information is included on a credit report, there are some time frames associated with how long debt is reported for. For instance, most types of debt, like debt that has been taken over by a debt collection agency, is only included for 7 years. Bankruptcies are usually only included for 10 years.

The first time you look at a credit report all of the information can seem overwhelming, but if you break it down into logical groups, it is much easier to understand. It is also very important to check your credit report regularly, so if there is a problem you can fix it quickly.

The credit report is one of the first stops for a bank when someone applies for a mortgage, so removing as much debt as possible can make a big difference.