How to Check Your Credit Report

What a Credit Report Actually Contains

A credit report is a file compiled by a consumer reporting company that summarizes how an individual has managed credit and other financial obligations. Three nationwide companies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, each maintain their own version of a consumer's file, which is why the same account can appear differently across them.

A typical file includes identifying details such as name, current and prior addresses, date of birth, and a full or partial Social Security number. It also lists tradelines, the term for individual credit accounts, showing the creditor or lender name, account type, date opened, credit limit or original balance, current balance, and a month-by-month payment history.

Additional items include collection accounts, bankruptcy filings, and inquiries, which are records of parties that have requested the file. Consumer reporting companies distinguish between inquiries visible only to the consumer and those visible to lenders. The file generally does not include a credit score, income, or bank account balances.

• Identifying information, including name, addresses, and date of birth
• Tradelines with balances and payment history
• Collection accounts and public records such as bankruptcies
• Inquiries from lenders and other parties

The Free File Disclosure Under Federal Law

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires each nationwide consumer reporting company to provide a free file disclosure once every 12 months when a consumer requests it. The same law provides additional free reports in defined circumstances, including an adverse action taken because of report information, a fraud alert placed on the file, a documented identity theft, active duty military status, and receipt of unemployment compensation or public assistance.

The three nationwide companies operate AnnualCreditReport.com as the single centralized source for these federally required reports. The site does not provide a credit score as part of the free disclosure, because the statutory right covers the report itself rather than scoring products sold separately.

In recent years the three nationwide companies have also continued to make free reports available on a weekly basis through that same site, beyond the minimum required by statute. Some states add their own free-report provisions on top of the federal rule, which is why state law is sometimes relevant to what a resident can request at no charge.

Report contents and dispute rights are covered in more detail in the related guides on the credit report, the annual credit report, and the free credit report, each of which examines a different part of the same file.

Requesting Reports by Phone or Mail

Consumers who prefer not to use the website can call the Annual Credit Report Request Service toll-free at 1-877-322-8228, a line operated for the federally mandated report program. Automated prompts collect the same identifying information that the website requests and route the order to the appropriate company.

A mailed request uses a standard request form available through the Federal Trade Commission and through AnnualCreditReport.com. The completed form is sent to the Annual Credit Report Request Service, which forwards it to each selected nationwide company. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the companies must provide the report within fifteen days of receiving a request made by mail or telephone.

Phone and mail requests are useful when online identity verification does not succeed, when a consumer has limited internet access, or when documentation needs to be supplied along with the request. Because each company keeps a separate file, a single request can be directed to one, two, or all three companies.

How Identity Verification Works

An online request asks for name, current address, date of birth, and Social Security number. The company then matches those answers against data already in the file and, if the match is incomplete, presents multiple-choice questions drawn from the file, such as a former street name, a lender the consumer has used, or the approximate size of a past loan payment.

If the answers do not match the file, the automated request cannot be completed and the consumer is offered a mail-based alternative. That process typically requires copies of documents such as a government-issued photo identification, a utility bill, and a Social Security card or other proof of the number.

A security freeze or a fraud alert does not block a consumer's own access to a free file disclosure. A freeze restricts third parties such as lenders from obtaining the file for new account decisions, while the consumer retains the right to view the report and to place or lift the freeze.

Specialty and Regional Consumer Reporting Companies

The free annual file disclosure required by federal law applies specifically to the nationwide consumer reporting companies. Other consumer reporting agencies may charge a reasonable fee for a file disclosure, although some state laws require a free report from certain specialty agencies operating in that state.

Specialty agencies hold narrower files used for specific decisions. Examples include deposit account history reported for bank and credit union account openings, insurance claims databases used in underwriting, medical information databases used by insurers, and tenant or employment screening files assembled by background screening firms.

The Federal Trade Commission publishes a list of consumer reporting companies that identifies many of these agencies and the categories of information they collect. Even when an agency is not a nationwide company, it remains subject to the accuracy and dispute obligations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Reviewing the Report and Handling Errors

A review typically begins with the personal information block, where an unfamiliar address or a misspelled name can indicate a mixed file. From there, each tradeline is compared against account statements for balance, status, and payment history, and the inquiry section is checked for parties the consumer does not recognize.

When something appears incomplete or inaccurate, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives consumers the right to dispute it with the consumer reporting company and, separately, with the furnisher that supplied the data. The company generally must conduct a reinvestigation within thirty days, or within forty-five days if the consumer provides additional information during the initial thirty-day period.

The outcome of a dispute is a correction, a deletion, or a determination that the item is reported accurately. Accurate negative information remains for the applicable retention period, which is generally seven years for most items and longer for certain bankruptcy filings. When an error stems from identity theft, IdentityTheft.gov provides a federal reporting process and an affidavit that can accompany dispute correspondence.

The companion guide on how to read a credit report walks through each section line by line, and the guide on credit bureaus explains how the nationwide companies differ from one another and from specialty agencies.

• Accounts that do not belong to the consumer
• Balances or payment statuses that conflict with statements
• Duplicate tradelines for the same account
• Inquiries from companies the consumer did not contact

Reports, Scores, and Monitoring Services

A credit score is a numeric output produced by a scoring model that reads the data in a report. Because the statutory free file disclosure covers the report rather than the score, a score may be sold separately, offered by a lender, or included with a paid monitoring subscription. Different scoring models weigh the same file differently, which is why a consumer may see more than one number.

Monitoring services offered by banks, card issuers, and independent companies alert users to changes such as a new inquiry, a new account, or a new address on file. These services read the same underlying reports and do not alter what the consumer reporting companies record.

A consumer-initiated report request is logged as a soft inquiry, a category that is not shown to lenders and is not used in scoring calculations by the widely used models. Lender-initiated inquiries from applications are recorded separately and remain on the file for a defined period.

CreditProfile.org is an independent consumer credit-education publisher. It is not a credit bureau, lender, or adviser, and it has no affiliation with any credit reporting company.