Credit Reports Documentation
Credit reports are to be compiled by exclusive bodies that are known as credit bureaus. There is a huge amount of information that is necessary to be mentioned in the credit report. The information can be gathered from either the client or from a few companies that have records of the person who has transacted in the form of taking loans, having delayed with the payment of bills etc. The credit report is the document based on which the credit score, also called the FICO score is calculated. Credit score is simply a number with which the financial health of a person can be determined. The information about credit history that is being mentioned in the different sections of a credit report is as below:
- The personal information such as the name, age, gender of the individual is to be recorded initially. This is important because this is the only source of information about the identity of the person for whom the credit report is being compiled. This also includes other information such as the contact information and the social security number that is unique for every person.
- The name of the companies or organizations that have reviewed the credit report, or have had access to the report at any point will be documented compulsorily in the credit report. Any review of the report will not affect the credit score or the standard of the credit report, while gaining access to it incase an understanding is needed before the sanction of a loan may affect the report and hence the credit score negligibly.
- Mortgages, loans that have been paid, installments or interests that have been left unpaid are also recorded in the credit report. Late payments or extended payments of a loan are also worth being recorded for documentation of a credit report.
- The person might have reported a case of bankruptcy at some point of time and this particularly needs to be compiled along with the other essential financial records of the person.
- There is an exclusive part of the credit reports where all the negative credit records are mentioned. These are also called dings and they are usually separated from each other with the help of punctuation such as the use star or hyphen.
The three types of credit reports- consumer, business and annual credit reports are to be compiled only by credit bureaus such as the Equifax. Annual credit reports can be compiled free of cost and online request for the documentation is possible. However consumer credit reports cannot be compiled for free.