Guide to Personal Credit Reports

Personal credit reports are requested every single day. This is largely because of changes in U.S. laws that allow citizens to receive one free copy of their files once every 12 months.

Processing Info

Personal credit reports are processed and generated by one of three U.S. major credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. The records these bureaus produce tell lenders and creditors the following about a person:

Present and previous addresses
Outstanding credit card debts
Types of credit accounts held
Payment and/or delinquency (past due) history
Name and/or name changes
Social security number, State I.D./driver’s license number, and birth date
Status of accounts (open or closed)
Bank account history
Present and previous employers
Tax liens, bankruptcies, and judgments
Dates and lengths of times accounts were open
Inquiries (requests to see your credit report)
Attempts to apply for credit

Monitoring of Personal Credit Reports

If you want to keep track of your entire personal and financial history, you can. This would help so that you can protect yourself from identity theft. It also will help you make changes and prepare you for cleaning up your credit.

At any rate, paid services offered to people include the following:

Identity theft insurance and protection -To help prevent and pay for financial loss in case of identity theft and to help prevent it from happening in the first place

Careful status observation-E-mail alerts sent to you when a change appears on your files and updates of all types every time new information is released about an account you have

Credit score calculation-Tracking of your current rating so that you can easily assess by yourself how creditworthy you may be

Free help-Answers to questions about interpreting what is included your files; knowledge base about how to read personal credit reports

A Piece of Advice

In Regards to personal credit reports, if you would like a free copy of your files you should go to AnnualCreditReport.com. However, if you want additional premium services you may want to try any of those offered by National Credit Report.

You could also use one of the three major U.S. credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, or Equifax). For instance, you might want to use Triple Advantage®, 3 Bureau Credit Monitoring, or Credit Watch Gold.

These all have varying features. The suggestion is to compare them before purchasing subscriptions.

Credit Report & Score