How to Read Your Credit Report Properly, for Free

Your credit report is not your credit score. The score is a number calculated from the report; the report is the underlying record. If something is wrong with your credit, it is wrong in the report, and you cannot see it by looking at a score.

Getting Them

annualcreditreport.com. That is the site authorized under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, run jointly by the three nationwide bureaus. It is free, it always has been, and the weekly access that began as a pandemic measure has continued.

Get all three. Equifax, Experian and TransUnion hold separate files, and they do not contain the same things — a lender may report to one and not the others, so an error can exist on one report and not on the other two.

Avoid anything that asks for a card to show you a "free" report.

This is also the honest way to check whether anything you are paying for is working. If a company reports to all three bureaus, you should be able to see the account on all three reports — and if it reports to one, you will find out here rather than from the marketing. We report to all three, and we would rather you verified that at annualcreditreport.com than took our word for it.

What to Read, in Order

1. Personal information. Names, addresses, employers. Errors here are the ones that cause mixed files — someone else's account attached to you because of a similar name. It happens more than people expect, and it is the most damaging error there is.

2. Accounts. For each one, check: is it yours, is the status right, is the balance roughly right, and is the date opened right. A closed account marked open, or a paid collection still showing a balance, is a real error worth disputing.

3. Negative items and their dates. Most negative information can be reported for seven years. What matters is the date of first delinquency, because that is what starts the clock. A collection re-sold to a new agency does not restart it, and an agency reporting as though it did is reporting inaccurately.

4. Inquiries. Hard inquiries only matter a little and only for a while — but an inquiry you do not recognise can be a sign of fraud.

Disputing Something

Dispute with the bureau, the furnisher, or both. Be specific about what is wrong and why, and include what you have. Under the FCRA the bureau generally has 30 days to investigate, and the furnisher has to investigate too and report the result back.

Keep records of what you sent and when.

What to Expect

Most people find one or two small things. Fixing an inaccurate late payment or a wrongly-reported balance can matter; removing accurate negative information is not something anyone can do, and any company promising it is describing something they cannot deliver.

Doing this costs nothing and takes about an hour. It is the single most useful free thing available to anyone worried about their credit.