Having a good credit score is incredibly important if you want to get a credit card with a decent interest rate, qualify for a car loan, or qualify for a home mortgage. The first step to having a good credit score is to understand the three agencies that creditors report to: Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian.
It’s important to know how your credit report is going to be different on each of these agencies. They all feature slightly different information. Here is a general overview of each of the agencies.
Equifax
In an Equifax report, all accounts are summarized as being open or closed. This makes it a little easier to look over all of your open accounts to decide which ones you need to focus on to improve your credit score.
There is an 81-month credit history for each account on the report from Equifax. Some accounts may also have a statement that accompanies them, which says “no 81-month payment data available for this display.”
TransUnion
On the TransUnion report, a more detailed employment history is listed than on the other two reports. Every account is listed as either “satisfactory” or “unsatisfactory”, and there are color-coded boxes that are featured with every account to better visually describe your payment history.
So, for example, if there is a yellow box that says “30,” it means that you were 30 days late on a payment whereas a green box that says “OK” means that your payment is current. If a white box with an “X” is present, it simply means that there is unknown information associated with the account or payments.
Experian
There are some unique things featured on the Experian report that aren’t featured on the other two reports. For example, the report has a “balance history” section, which indicates what your credit/balance has been for the past decade throughout different time frames. Each account will also have “status details” that are listed, and these will indicate when the accounts will fall off your report. So if you had an account closed in April 2016, it will explain that this account will stay on your report until April 2026.
Some of your basic information is going to be listed on all three reports. For instance, your personal information like your name, known previous addresses, and date of birth is going to be listed. You will also see some sort of summary of all of your accounts on each report.
Once you have a better understanding of the three reports from the three different agencies, you are in a much better place to analyze your free credit report. Fortunately, there are websites like Credit Sesame where you are able to obtain a free copy of your credit report. Once you have a look at this, you will see how you could go about improving your credit. If your credit score has fallen, repairing it can be the best way to ensure that your financial future is secure.
