How to Read an Experian Credit Report

Experian monitors the credit account for frauds or identity threats. Credit reports are issued for the customers and creditors convenience, simplifying future business decisions in the process.

Almost all the National Consumer Credit Reporting bureaus have a distinctive way of credit report formulation, but the underlying information is the same. Lack of knowledge of the layout and terms used in the report could confuse you. Keeping that in mind the following guidelines could help in reading the credit report.

Header

Here personal information to be specified, which includes your full name, date of report and report number. In future whenever you contact Experian, the report number will be needed.

Negative information

All information, which can turn out to be risky in future, is enlisted under this section of an experion credit report, for example Name, address, account number, date of claim, date of claim resolve, account status and the person bearing responsibility to resolve claim.
It also includes foreclosures, judgments, bankruptcies or liens in the credit history.

Credit Items

On an experion credit report, all information related to the past credit accounts is given here, name of creditors with their address, type of account, account number, status of account whether its paid or overdue, date of opening account, credit limits, and the payment terms with the recent payments is included. Along with this, a brief summary of the credit history is provided for each account and their delinquency or collection status is also attached.

Accounts with good status

Given here are accounts with a good standing, which could contribute for a good FICO (Fair Isaac & Co) score. This section of an experion credit report contains details of the creditor with his address, your type and status of the account, the account number, date of opening an account, credit limit with the payment terms whether monthly or yearly etc.

Credit History Requests

On an experion credit report, requests for information regarding credit histories are enlisted under this. The requests viewed by others and the requests viewed by you are separately listed.
In case of the requests viewed by others, inquiries are done by creditors who have your loan applications or for credit lines. The requests have details of the company, address, date of request and their comments on the credit history. On the other hand in the requests viewed by you, enquiries done by you and legal enquiries done by people who have permission to review your credit files are included. The requests have details of the name of the company requesting enquiry, address, date of requests and the comments given by the company.

Personal information

Your name with its variations (if any) is listed with other additional personal information like date of birth, previous and current address, and social security number. In addition, your comments made to Experian regarding the credit reports are included for reference.

All information should be thoroughly read before making any decisions. By keeping the given guidelines in mind, reading and understanding the Experion credit report makes things easier for you to correspond with the agency and the creditor.