Finance & Money
What a credit report contains and how to read it
You are entitled to a free copy from each major bureau, and errors in them are common enough to be worth checking for.
A credit report lists accounts, balances, payment history, certain public records, and a record of who has requested the file. It is not a single number. A score is calculated from the report by a separate model, and different models produce different scores from the same underlying data.
Federal law entitles you to a free copy from each of the national bureaus, requested through AnnualCreditReport.com. Taking one bureau at a time, spaced across the year, gives a rolling view at no cost.
Errors appear often enough that checking is worthwhile: accounts that are not yours, balances already paid, the same debt listed twice, and addresses you have never lived at. Any of these can be disputed, and the bureau is required to investigate.
A dispute should be raised with the bureau and separately with the company that supplied the information. Doing both is more effective than doing either alone, and keeping a dated copy of what you sent matters if the process has to be repeated.
What to do next. Request your report from each bureau through AnnualCreditReport.com, and dispute anything inaccurate with both the bureau and the company that reported it.
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