1. Review the Sample Reports
Here’s how to read each credit report.
Equifax. Equifax is the only credit reporting agency that provides consumers with a credit report in column format. (All three credit bureaus used to report the information this way.) Nevertheless, the Equifax report is not difficult to read. At the top of the first page, you’ll find a unique confirmation number, the date of the report, and your name, address, previous addresses, Social Security number, age and employer.
The only other information is the credit history.
The report begins with public record information obtained from local, state and federal courts and offices, such as lawsuits, bankruptcies and liens. Next, Equifax often separates out accounts with collection agencies. In the next section, the report lists each account reported to Equifax. Here’s what you see:
• Company Name is the name of the business reporting the information. In many cases, just below the company name, Equifax includes a description of the type of account (such as student loan, credit card or line of credit), some payment history and/or the account’s status (such as charge off, collection account,
payment deferred, account transferred or account closed by consumer).
• Account Number is your account number with the company reporting the informatio • Whose Acct indicates who is responsible for the account and the type of obligation you have. The possibilities are:
A = Authorized user (of someone else’s account)
B = On behalf of another person
C = Comaker/Cosigner
I = Individual
J = Joint
M = Maker
S = Shared
T = Terminated
U = Undesignated
• Date Opened is the month and year you opened the account.
• Date of Last Activity is the most recent month and year that something happened on the account. This may be the last time you made a payment (if you are currently paying) or when the account was charged off or sent to collections. This date is important because negative information (other than bankruptcies)
can stay on your report for up to seven years after the date of the last activity.
• Status indicates both the type of account and your payment history.
Taken From : Credit Repair by Attorneys Robin Leonard and Deanne Loonin
