Here's My Credit Report - Now What?

By George Stargell, Senior Editor

"Check your credit reports."

"Monitor your credit report closely."

You're probably familiar with these recommendations; they're everywhere these days, particularly if you're looking for a line of credit. Your credit score plays a big role in your financial prospects, and it's based entirely on the information in your credit report.

Here's what to look for in your credit report:

• Personal information. This includes your date of birth, current and previous addresses, your Social Security number, and more. Make sure all of this information accurately reflects you and your history. If someone else is connected with your Social Security number or there's an address you've never seen, investigate immediately; it could be a sign of identity theft.
• Account summaries. This area lists all active/open and inactive/closed accounts in your name. Check for accounts you don't recognize or for accounts that are incorrectly listed as "open" or "closed." Again, suspicious activity like that can be a sign of identity theft.
• Personal payment history. This section shows whether you've made on-time, late, or no payments on all of your installment or revolving lines of credit. Check for inaccuracies — "outstanding debt" that you've already paid off, disputed bills that were resolved in your favor, and more. Fixing such errors can affect your credit score.
• Public information. This is information available in public records — tax liens, bankruptcy filings, foreclosures, etc. Make sure it's accurate; if it's not, dispute it.
• Credit inquiries. This section lists the names of companies and agencies that have looked into your credit history over the last two years. There's not much you can do about that, but if you see a number of lending institutions that you don't know, look into it, just in case someone else was applying for credit in your name.
• Creditor contacts. This is a list of phone numbers, addresses, and possibly online contact information for your current creditors. This information can come in handy if you need to investigate suspicious activity in your credit report.

Credit reports are easy to read once you're familiar with them, which is recommended, after all.