How to Understand an Equifax Credit Report

You've taken the first step in becoming financially responsible. You got your Equifax credit report. Regular credit report check-ups are important to make sure you aren't forgetting any debt or that no one is fraudulently using your identity. But a credit report does you no good if you don't know how to read it. Fortunately, an Equifax credit report labels most sections clearly, so understanding your report should be a snap.

Instructions

1

Review your personal information. This should be the first section on your Equifax credit report. This will list the most recent contact information that the credit reporting company has. If there's any incorrect or missing information, report this to Equifax.

2

Review the accounts section. This is the second section on your Equifax report. These will be separated by type: mortgage, installment, revolving and other. The balance will show how much you have loaned to you; available will show how much credit you have left to use; credit limit shows how much credit you have access to; and the debt-to-credit ratio shows how much you have out compared to how much you have available. The report then lists how much your monthly payment is, followed by the number of accounts you have.

3

Read your tradelines. These are the list of companies that you have accounts with. Equifax will separate your positive accounts (Accounts in Good Standing) from your negative accounts (Potentially Negative Information).

4

Review the positive accounts first. Positive accounts may still have negative information from the past. Codes like R2 mean that you have been late on a payment. Some third-party groups that distribute the credit report may use words like OK to imply that your payment was on time. If you see something like 30 or 90 in red, this means you were 30 or 90 days late on your payment.

5

Look over the negative accounts, which should be separated by public records, negative accounts and collections. From here, they will be separated by whether the account is opened or closed.

6

Check that each negative tradeline includes an account name, account number, date opened, a balance, a date reported, the past due amount, the account status and the credit limit. If it does not include all of this information, dispute it with Equifax, and they may remove the account from your report.

7

Check for anything marked charged off, bad debt, or placed for collections. This means that the account is over 180 days past due and was sold to a collection agency.

8

Review your inquiries. This should be the final section on your credit report. Inquiries are a list of people who have viewed your credit report or to received your credit score. When you apply for a line of credit, the company you applied through will usually show up here.

9

Review the section of voluntary inquiries. These are inquiries that you authorized and that may affect your credit. If you did not authorize any of these, contact Equifax.