Credit Report Summary

The summary section on your credit report usually offers the quickest way to determine your general riskiness as a borrower and prevent the credit bureaus from reporting erroneous information. However, not all credit report summaries contain the same data, so you always want to thoroughly scan your entire report before assuming you have a good profile.

Identification

Credit report summaries list the most pertinent information in your credit profile -- usually any potentially negative items and open accounts, according to True Credit. The major bureaus have their own particular formats, and any other service that pulls your report, such as a credit monitoring service, may have another variant on the summary section.

Considerations

Some of the credit bureaus include all information about your accounts in the summary, such as the name of the lender, the balance and if you were ever late on a payment. Thus, the summary could be your biggest section. When you pull a triple credit report -- a report from all three major bureaus at once -- the summary probably won't have enough room for details on your accounts.

Use

Your credit report summary section probably lists the negative items in your report. If you have any, immediately review the account that contains the negative information. Negative items are the only thing that can damage your score, and the agencies or a creditor may list a bad mark in error. If you see a mistake, dispute it immediately along with copies of any documents to support your claim.

Tip

A 3-in-1 credit report may have a more abridged summary than a single report, but it can help you spot errors more easily by giving you summaries side by side. Do not forget the rest of your report, because it may contain information vital to your creditworthiness. Inquiries, for instance, usually fall under their own section and can hurt if you have too many hard requests for credit. Personal information can lower your chances at loan approval, such as when the agencies list you changing jobs every few months.