To read a credit report, go through it section by section rather than trying to understand everything at once. Start by verifying your personal information, then review every credit account, balance, credit limit, account status and payment history. Next, check any negative accounts, collections, public records and credit inquiries.

Pay close attention to information you don’t recognize, incorrect late payments, unfamiliar accounts, inaccurate balances or limits, incorrect account statuses and dates that don’t look right.

Don’t just read your credit report—verify it. The goal is to make sure the information being reported actually belongs to you and is accurate.

Credit Report Review Checklist

As you review your credit report, confirm that:

☐ Your identifying information is accurate
☐ Every account belongs to you
☐ Account ownership or responsibility is correct
☐ Balances and credit limits are accurate
☐ Open and closed account statuses are correct
☐ Payment history is accurate
☐ Late payments are correctly reported
☐ Collection accounts belong to you
☐ Public-record information is accurate
☐ You recognize all hard inquiries
☐ The same account isn’t incorrectly reported more than once
☐ Potentially outdated negative information is investigated

Before You Start: Get All Three Credit Reports

Before reviewing your credit, get copies of your reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion. Each credit bureau maintains its own credit file, and the information in one report may not be identical to the information in the others.

A lender may report an account to one, two or all three bureaus, and reporting or processing times can also differ. That means an account, balance or other detail could appear differently across your three reports.

You can obtain your official free credit reports from  ⁠AnnualCreditReport.com, the federally authorized source for free reports from all three nationwide credit bureaus. Reports are currently available free weekly.  

Checking all three helps you identify errors or unfamiliar information that might appear on only one bureau’s file.

Tip: Open your credit report while following this guide. We’ll walk through it in roughly the same order the information usually appears.

Credit Report vs. Credit Score: What’s the Difference?

Your credit report and credit score are related, but they aren’t the same thing.

A credit report is a detailed record of your credit history. It can include your credit cards and loans, reported balances, credit limits, payment history, account statuses, collections, public records and credit inquiries.

A credit score is a number calculated using information from a credit report. Credit scoring models analyze information in that report to estimate credit risk. Because different reports and scoring models may be used, you can have more than one credit score.

Important: Your credit score is not necessarily included on your credit report. You can review a credit report without seeing a credit score anywhere on it.

How to Read Your Credit Report Step by Step

Credit reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion may look different, but they generally contain many of the same types of information. We’ll start with the information used to identify you and then work through your accounts, payment history, negative items and inquiries.

Step 1: Review Your Personal Information

The personal information section identifies who the credit report belongs to. Depending on the credit bureau and report format, you may see:

• Your name and variations of your name
• Current and previous addresses
• Date of birth
• Partial or masked Social Security number
• Current or previous employers, where reported
• Phone numbers or other identifying information

What Should You Verify?

Make sure the information actually belongs to you. Minor variations in a name or an old address aren’t automatically signs that something is wrong, but information you don’t recognize deserves a closer look.

Personal Information Red Flags

Pay particular attention to:

• An address where you’ve never lived
• A name or name variation that isn’t yours
• An employer you’ve never worked for
• Identifying information that appears to belong to another person
• Other personal information you don’t recognize

Unfamiliar information can sometimes indicate an error, a credit file that has been mixed with another person’s information, or potential identity theft.

Does Personal Information Affect Your Credit Score?

Identifying information such as your name, address and employer generally isn’t used to calculate your credit score.

That doesn’t mean you should ignore mistakes in this section. Personal information helps associate credit information with your file, so verifying it is an important first step before reviewing the accounts being reported under your name.

Step 2: Learn How to Read a Credit Account (Tradeline)

A tradeline is the record of an individual credit account appearing on your credit report. Credit cards, auto loans, mortgages, personal loans and other reported credit accounts can each appear as separate tradelines.

Tradelines contain much more than your current balance. They can show who owns the account, what type of credit it is, when it was opened, its current status, payment history and when the creditor last updated the information.

The exact terminology and layout can vary between Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, but the information may look something like this:

Example Credit Card Tradeline

ABC BANK CREDIT CARD — Account #XXXX1234

Account Type: Revolving
Responsibility: Individual
Date Opened: 04/15/2021
Account Status: Open
Current Balance: $1,850
Credit Limit: $5,000
Payment Status: Current
Monthly Payment: $75
Date Updated: 09/15/2026
Remarks: Open / Never Late

This is a fictional example for educational purposes. Your credit report may use different labels, codes or formatting.

What Every Field on a Credit Report Account Means

Field	What It Means	What You Should Check
Creditor name	The lender or company furnishing information about the account	Do you recognize the creditor and account?
Account number	An identifier for the account, usually partially masked on consumer reports	Does the displayed information correspond with your account?
Account type	The type of credit, such as revolving, installment or mortgage	Is the account classified correctly?
Responsibility	Your relationship to the account, such as individual, joint or authorized user	Is your responsibility for the account reported correctly?
Date opened	The date the account was opened	Does the opening date make sense?
Account status	Whether the account is open, closed, paid, delinquent or another status	Does the status match the account’s actual condition?
Current balance	The balance most recently reported to the credit bureau	Does it reasonably reflect your recent account activity?
Credit limit	The reported credit limit, primarily relevant to revolving accounts	Is the limit accurate?
Original/high balance	Depending on the account and report, this may represent an original loan amount or a high balance	Does the amount make sense for this account?
Monthly payment	The scheduled or reported monthly payment, when provided	Is the payment amount accurate?
Payment status	Indicates whether the account is current or reported as delinquent	Is an account incorrectly showing as late or past due?
Date updated	The date the account information was most recently updated or reported	Has the account been updated recently, or could the information be stale?
Remarks/comments	Additional information reported about the account	Do you see anything inaccurate or unfamiliar?

Don’t Assume a Different Balance Means Your Report Is Wrong

One field that’s especially easy to misunderstand is the current balance. The balance on your credit report may not match the balance you see when you log in to your lender’s website today.

Credit reports generally reflect the balance most recently furnished to the credit bureau, not necessarily your account’s live balance at this exact moment. If you recently made a payment or new purchase, look at the Date Updated or similarly named field before assuming the balance is inaccurate.

What Should You Look for on Every Tradeline?

Instead of simply checking whether you recognize the creditor, ask four questions:

1. Is this account mine?
Make sure you recognize the creditor and your relationship to the account.

2. Are the account details correct?
Check the account type, date opened, responsibility, balance, credit limit and open or closed status.

3. Is the payment status accurate?
Pay close attention to accounts reported as late, delinquent, charged off or otherwise not current.

4. When was the account last updated?
An older reporting date can explain why a recent payment, balance change or account update isn’t reflected yet.

Once you’ve verified the basic tradeline information, the next step is understanding what type of account you’re looking at and how to read its payment history.

Step 3: Understand Revolving vs. Installment Accounts

Not every tradeline will contain the same information. The fields you see can depend on the type of credit account you’re reviewing.

Revolving Accounts

Credit cards and lines of credit are common examples of revolving accounts. These accounts generally allow you to borrow, repay and borrow again up to an available credit limit.

On a revolving account, pay particular attention to the reported balance and credit limit because these numbers can be used to calculate your credit utilization.

Reported Balance ÷ Credit Limit = Credit Utilization

For example, if your credit report shows:

Balance: $1,850
Credit Limit: $5,000

Your reported utilization for that account would be:

$1,850 ÷ $5,000 = 37%

Installment Accounts

Auto loans, mortgages, personal loans and student loans are examples of installment accounts. Instead of revolving around a reusable credit limit, these accounts generally involve borrowing a set amount and repaying it over time.

Because of this, an installment tradeline may emphasize fields such as the original loan amount, current balance, monthly payment and loan status rather than a revolving credit limit.

The important thing is to compare each account against the fields that make sense for that type of credit rather than expecting every tradeline on your report to look the same.

Step 4: Read Your Payment History

Your payment history shows how an account was reported from month to month. Depending on the credit bureau or report provider, you may see a grid, timeline, symbols or numerical codes indicating whether payments were current or late.

A payment-history section might look something like this:

Month	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep
Status	OK	OK	30	OK	OK	OK

In this example, the account was reported as current in most months but 30 days late in June.

What Do OK, 30, 60, 90 and 120 Mean?

Code	General Meaning
OK / Current	Account was reported as current
30	Reported approximately 30 days late
60	Reported approximately 60 days late
90	Reported approximately 90 days late
120+	Reported as seriously delinquent

The exact codes and formatting can vary between Experian, Equifax, TransUnion and third-party credit report providers, so use the legend provided on your specific report when one is available.

What Should You Check?

Review the payment history month by month rather than looking only at the account’s current status.

Look for:

• Late payments you don’t recognize
• A 30-, 60-, 90- or 120-day late payment you believe was reported incorrectly
• Months that don’t match your payment records
• Delinquency appearing on an account you believe was current
• Patterns or codes you don’t understand

An account can be current today while still showing previous late payments in its historical payment record. That’s why checking only the current balance or account status can cause you to miss important information elsewhere in the tradeline.

Step 5: Review Account Statuses and Remarks

After reviewing payment history, look at the account status and any remarks or comments attached to the tradeline. These fields describe the account’s current condition or provide additional information about how it is being reported.

Common statuses and remarks you may encounter include:

Status or Remark	What It Generally Means
Open	The account is currently open
Closed	The account has been closed
Paid	The reported debt has been paid
Paid as agreed	The account was reported as paid according to its terms
Current	The account is not currently reported as past due
Past due	A required payment is currently delinquent
Charged off	The creditor has written the delinquent account off as a loss
Collection	The debt has been reported as being in collections
Closed by creditor	The creditor, rather than the consumer, closed the account
Authorized user	You’re reported as an authorized user rather than the primary account holder
Deferred	Payments may be temporarily postponed under the account’s terms or an applicable deferment arrangement

Terminology can vary by credit bureau, creditor and report format, so read the status together with the rest of the tradeline rather than interpreting one label by itself.

Account Status and Account Balance Are Not the Same Thing

This distinction is important.

Your account balance tells you how much is currently being reported as owed. Your account status tells you the condition of the account.

For example, an account showing a $0 balance doesn’t necessarily disappear from your credit report, and a zero balance doesn’t automatically erase the account’s previous payment history or change how it was historically reported.

Likewise, an account marked “closed” isn’t necessarily negative. A closed account may have been paid and closed in good standing, while another closed account could contain previous late payments or other adverse information.

When reviewing a tradeline, look at the balance, account status, payment status, payment history and remarks together. That gives you a much clearer picture than relying on any single field.

Step 6: Review Negative or Adverse Accounts

Negative or adverse accounts are tradelines that contain information such as missed payments, serious delinquencies, charge-offs, defaults, or other unfavorable payment history.

These accounts deserve extra attention because the details can be more important than the label itself. Don’t just see a negative account and move on—check whether the information being reported is actually accurate.

Common adverse information may include:

• Late payments
• 30-, 60-, 90- or 120-day delinquencies
• Charged-off accounts
• Defaulted accounts
• Closed accounts with negative payment history
• Other adverse remarks or account statuses

What Should You Verify?

For every negative account, check:

• Does the account actually belong to you?
• Is the account status accurate?
• Are the reported late payments correct?
• Is the balance accurate?
• Are the dates correct?
• Does the payment history make sense from month to month?
• Do the status, balance, remarks and payment history agree with each other?

For example, if an account shows a serious delinquency, review the payment-history grid and account dates to see whether the reported timeline is consistent.

The goal here is not simply to identify negative information. It is to determine whether the information is yours, whether it is accurate, and whether the account is being reported consistently across its different fields.

Step 7: Review Collection Accounts

Collection accounts deserve their own review because they may appear separately from the original account that led to the debt.

A collection entry can include details such as the collection agency, original creditor, balance, account status, date updated, and other remarks about the debt. Some reports may also show the date of first delinquency or other timeline information tied to the account. 

Reading-a-sample-credit-report-5.28.25.pdf

What Should You Look For?

Review each collection account carefully and check:

• The name of the collection agency
• The original creditor
• The reported balance
• The date of first delinquency, when available
• The date the account was last updated
• The current account status
• Whether the collection actually belongs to you

Collection Account Red Flags

Take a closer look if you see:

• A debt you don’t recognize
• The wrong original creditor
• An incorrect balance
• The same debt appearing more than once
• Dates that don’t make sense
• Information that may be too old to still be reported
• A collection tied to an account that isn’t yours

Don’t assume every collection entry is accurate just because it appears on the report. Compare the collection details with the original account and your own records to make sure the information is consistent.

Step 8: Review Public Records

Your credit report may include a public records section containing certain information obtained from public records. Today, the primary public record you may encounter on a credit report is bankruptcy information.

If a bankruptcy appears on your report, don’t stop at recognizing that it’s there. Review the details to make sure the record is associated with the correct person and reported accurately.

What Should You Verify?

Check the available information for:

• Your name and identifying information
• The type of bankruptcy reported
• The filing date
• The current status of the bankruptcy
• Any other identifying or case information provided on the report

If you see a bankruptcy that doesn’t belong to you or details that appear incorrect, investigate the discrepancy rather than assuming the public record is accurate.

The exact information and format can vary by credit bureau, so focus on whether the record belongs to you and whether the key details match the underlying public record.

Step 9: Read the Credit Inquiry Section

The inquiry section shows who has accessed your credit report. Most reports separate inquiries into two categories: hard inquiries and soft inquiries.

Hard Inquiries

A hard inquiry generally appears when you apply for new credit and a lender checks your credit as part of the application process.

Examples can include applications for:

• Credit cards
• Auto loans
• Mortgages
• Personal loans
• Other financing

Hard inquiries may affect your credit score, although the impact can vary depending on the scoring model and your overall credit profile.

Soft Inquiries

Soft inquiries are credit checks that generally do not result from a new credit application and do not affect your credit score.

They can include:

• Checking your own credit
• Account reviews by companies you already do business with
• Credit monitoring
• Prequalification or promotional offers
• Certain employment, insurance or tenant-screening reviews, depending on the circumstances

Some credit reports may label these as account review inquiries, promotional inquiries or another type of soft inquiry rather than simply calling them “soft inquiries.”

What Should You Check?

The most important question is:

Do you recognize every hard inquiry?

Review the company name and inquiry date and think about whether you applied for credit with that lender around that time.

An unfamiliar hard inquiry does not automatically mean fraud, because the name shown on the report may differ from the brand or dealership you dealt with. But if you truly do not recognize the inquiry after reviewing the details, it deserves further investigation.

Soft inquiries usually require less concern because they do not affect your credit score, but reviewing them can still help you understand who has accessed your credit file and why.

Our sample credit report separates hard inquiries from soft and account-review inquiries, so you can see how these different types of credit checks may appear on an actual report.

Step 10: Review Consumer Statements and Other Report Sections

Near the end of your credit report, you may find additional sections that aren’t tied to a specific tradeline but are still worth reviewing.

Consumer Statements

A consumer statement is a short statement added to your credit file to provide context about disputed information or explain a particular situation.

If a consumer statement appears on your report, review it to make sure it is still relevant and accurately reflects what you intended to communicate. The statement itself does not change the underlying account information or directly affect your credit score.

Summary of Your Rights

Credit reports may also include information explaining your rights under federal law and what you can do if you believe information in your credit file is inaccurate.

This section may provide information about:

• Disputing inaccurate or incomplete information
• Requesting corrections to your credit file
• Fraud alerts and credit freezes
• Obtaining additional information about your consumer rights

You don’t need to memorize this section, but don’t ignore it either. If you discover something that appears incorrect while reviewing your report, the rights and dispute information can help you understand your next steps.

Credit Report Red Flags: What Should You Look For?

Once you’ve reviewed each section individually, go back through your credit report and look for information that is unfamiliar, inconsistent or potentially inaccurate. Think of this as a final audit of your report.

Use this table as a quick reference:

Red Flag	Where to Look
Name or address that isn’t yours	Personal information
Account you don’t recognize	Accounts / tradelines
Wrong account ownership or responsibility	Account responsibility
Incorrect balance	Account details
Incorrect credit limit	Revolving accounts
Late payment you believe is incorrect	Payment history
Wrong open or closed status	Account status
Account that appears to be duplicated	Account sections
Collection you don’t recognize	Collections
Incorrect delinquency date	Negative accounts / collections
Bankruptcy that doesn’t belong to you	Public records
Hard inquiry you don’t recognize	Credit inquiries
Potentially outdated negative information	Negative accounts / collections

If something looks wrong, compare it with your own account records and review the corresponding information on your other credit reports. A difference between Experian, Equifax and TransUnion does not automatically mean one of the reports contains an error.

Just as importantly, finding negative information isn’t automatically evidence that something is being reported incorrectly. A late payment, collection, charge-off or other adverse item may be legitimate.

The question is whether the information is accurate, belongs to you and is being reported appropriately.

Why Your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion Reports May Look Different

Don’t be surprised if your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion credit reports don’t look exactly the same.

Each credit bureau maintains its own credit file and uses its own report layout, terminology and formatting. The same account might be displayed differently or use different labels depending on which report you’re reviewing.

The information itself can also differ. Not every creditor necessarily reports account information to all three credit bureaus, and creditors may furnish updates at different times. The bureaus may also process those updates on different schedules.

As a result, you might notice:

• An account appearing on one report but not another
• Different reported balances
• Different dates showing when an account was last updated
• Different terminology for similar account information
• An update appearing on one bureau’s report before it appears on another

Different does not automatically mean incorrect.

Instead of expecting all three reports to be identical, review each one independently and verify whether the information it contains accurately reflects your accounts and credit history.

How to Tell When an Account Was Last Updated

If a balance, payment or account status doesn’t look current, check when the creditor last updated the account before assuming there’s an error.

Depending on the credit bureau and report format, look for a field labeled:

• Date Updated
• Date Reported
• Last Reported
• Balance Updated
• A similar reporting or update date

This date can help you understand how recent the information on the tradeline actually is.

For example, if you paid down a credit card five days ago but the account was last updated three weeks ago, your credit report may simply be showing the previously reported balance. The newer balance may not appear until the creditor sends another update and the credit bureau processes it.

This is also why the balance shown on your credit report may temporarily differ from the balance you see when you log in to your lender’s website.

If you’re waiting for a recent payment or account change to appear, see our guide on How Often Does Your Credit Score Update? for a deeper explanation of lender reporting schedules, bureau updates and when changes may be reflected.

What Should You Do If You Find an Error on Your Credit Report?

If you find something that appears incorrect, first determine whether you’re dealing with an ordinary reporting error or activity you never authorized. Those situations may require different steps.

If Information Appears Inaccurate

If an account belongs to you but information about it appears incorrect or incomplete, document exactly what you believe is wrong.

This could include an incorrect balance, payment status, late payment, account ownership, credit limit, open or closed status, or other account information.

Gather any records that support your position, such as account statements, payment confirmations, correspondence or other documentation. Keep copies of everything you submit and records of your communications.

You can dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the credit bureau reporting it and with the company that furnished the information. The FTC recommends clearly identifying what you believe is incorrect and providing copies—not originals—of supporting documents.  

For a complete walkthrough, see our guide: How to Dispute an Error on Your Credit Report.

If You See an Account or Activity You Never Authorized

An account you don’t recognize is different from a balance or payment-history mistake.

If you believe someone used your personal information to open an account or obtain credit without your permission, treat it as potential identity theft rather than simply assuming it’s a routine reporting error.

The FTC’s  ⁠IdentityTheft.gov recovery process can help you report identity theft, create an Identity Theft Report and receive a recovery plan based on your situation. Depending on what happened, additional steps may include contacting the affected companies and using fraud alerts or credit freezes.  

Most importantly, don’t dispute accurate negative information simply because it’s hurting your credit. The dispute process is intended to address information you believe is inaccurate, incomplete or the result of identity theft, not legitimate negative information that belongs to you.  

Does Everything on Your Credit Report Affect Your Credit Score?

No. Your credit report contains more information than what credit scoring models use to calculate your score.

Information about how you’ve managed credit—such as payment history, balances, utilization, account age and recent applications for credit—can be considered by scoring models. Other information may appear on your report primarily for identification, disclosure or informational purposes.  

Here’s a simple way to think about it:

Information	Generally Score-Relevant?
Payment history	Yes
Revolving balances and credit utilization	Yes
Age and history of credit accounts	Can be
Types and mix of credit accounts	Can be
Hard credit inquiries	Can be
Your current or previous addresses	No
Employer information	No
Soft inquiries	No
Consumer statement itself	No*

Payment history, utilization, account age and mix, balances, and recent credit activity are among the types of credit-file information used by scoring models such as VantageScore. FICO also confirms that personal identifying information such as your address is not used to calculate FICO Scores and that soft inquiries do not affect them.  

The exact impact of any item can vary depending on the scoring model being used and the rest of the information in your credit file. A hard inquiry, for example, can be considered by a scoring model, but that doesn’t mean every inquiry will affect every score in exactly the same way.

*A consumer statement itself is not the same thing as the underlying account information it discusses. If the statement relates to a late payment, collection or another account, that underlying credit information may still be relevant to your score.

How Often Should You Review Your Credit Reports?

It’s a good idea to review your credit reports periodically rather than waiting until you’re applying for credit to discover a potential problem.

Reviewing your reports can be especially useful:

• Before applying for a mortgage, auto loan, credit card or other major financing
• After suspected fraud or identity theft
• After a significant account change, such as paying off a loan or closing an account
• While waiting for a disputed or corrected item to be updated
• Whenever you notice an account, balance or credit-score change you weren’t expecting

The goal isn’t to obsessively check your reports. It’s to periodically make sure the information being reported is accurate, current and actually belongs to you.

If you’re preparing for a major credit application, reviewing all three reports ahead of time also gives you an opportunity to investigate potential problems before a lender reviews your credit.

How to Read a Credit Report FAQs

What is the most important part of a credit report?

There isn’t one single field that determines whether a credit report is “good” or “bad.” Your credit accounts and payment history are especially important because they show how you’ve managed credit over time, but balances, account age, inquiries, collections and other information can also matter.

From an accuracy standpoint, every section deserves attention. Even information that doesn’t affect your credit score could indicate a reporting error or that information belonging to someone else has been mixed into your file.

What looks bad on a credit report?

Information that may raise concerns for lenders or affect credit scoring can include late payments, defaults, charge-offs, collection accounts, bankruptcy, high reported revolving balances and multiple recent applications for credit.

The significance of any particular item depends on the rest of your credit profile, the scoring model being used and what a particular lender considers when evaluating an application.

What does “OK” mean on a credit report?

“OK” generally indicates that an account was reported as current for that particular month, with no delinquency reported.

Credit-report formats and payment-history codes vary, so always check the legend included with the specific report you’re reading.

What do “30,” “60” or “90” mean on a credit report?

These numbers generally indicate the severity of a reported delinquency. For example, 30 typically represents approximately 30 days late, 60 approximately 60 days late and 90 approximately 90 days late.

Seeing “Current” today does not necessarily erase previous 30-, 60- or 90-day late-payment history.

What does “Date Updated” mean on a credit report?

Date Updated generally tells you when information about an account was most recently reported or updated on that credit report.

This field is particularly useful when a recently paid balance hasn’t changed yet. Your report may simply be displaying the most recently reported information rather than your account’s live balance.

What does “Account Status” mean on a credit report?

Account status describes the current reported condition of an account. Depending on the report, you might see terms such as open, closed, current, paid, past due, charged off or collection.

Read the status alongside the balance, payment status, payment history and account remarks rather than interpreting it by itself.

What does “Closed” mean on a credit report?

Closed generally means the account is no longer open for new activity. An account might have been closed by you or by the creditor.

A closed account is not automatically negative. Its payment history, balance and other reported information provide the context needed to understand the account.

What is a tradeline on a credit report?

A tradeline is an individual credit account listed on your credit report.

A tradeline may contain the creditor’s name, account type, responsibility, date opened, balance, credit limit or original loan amount, payment status, payment history, date updated and other account details.

What is an adverse account?

An adverse account is generally an account containing negative credit information, such as reported late payments, default, charge-off or another form of delinquency.

The terminology and organization can differ depending on the credit-report format.

What’s the difference between a hard inquiry and a soft inquiry?

A hard inquiry generally occurs when a lender checks your credit in connection with an application for new credit. Hard inquiries can be considered by credit scoring models.

A soft inquiry can occur when you check your own credit, when an existing creditor reviews your account or in certain pre-screening situations. Soft inquiries do not affect FICO Scores.  

Why is an account on one credit report but not another?

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion maintain separate credit files. A creditor may not furnish information to every credit bureau, and reporting and processing times can differ.

That’s why an account may appear on one or two reports but not another. Different does not automatically mean incorrect.

Is your credit score shown on your credit report?

Not necessarily. Your credit report contains the underlying credit information used by scoring models, while a credit score is a separate numerical calculation based on information in a credit report.

Some services provide a credit report and credit score together, but you should not assume that obtaining your credit report automatically means your credit score will be included.

How long does information stay on a credit report?

It depends on the type of information. Under federal law, most accurate negative information can generally be reported for up to seven years, while certain bankruptcy information can remain for up to 10 years. Hard inquiries typically remain for up to two years, although FICO Scores generally consider inquiries from the previous 12 months.  

We’ll cover the different reporting periods in detail in our guide to How Long Negative Information Stays on Your Credit Report.

Can checking your own credit report hurt your credit score?

No. Checking your own credit report is considered a soft inquiry and does not affect your FICO Scores.  

That’s different from a hard inquiry that may occur when you apply for a new credit card, loan or other financing.

What should you do if an account isn’t yours?

First, verify that you truly don’t recognize the account. Sometimes the company name displayed on a credit report differs from the brand name you’re familiar with.

If you determine that the account does not belong to you, review your other credit reports for similar activity and contact the appropriate credit bureau and company reporting the account. If you believe someone opened the account using your identity, treat it as potential identity theft and use the FTC’s identity-theft reporting and recovery process rather than treating it as an ordinary reporting mistake.  

The Bottom Line

Reading a credit report becomes much easier once you stop looking at it as one complicated document and review it section by section. Start with your personal information, then verify each account, balance, status and payment-history entry before reviewing collections, public records and credit inquiries.

The goal isn’t simply to find negative information. It’s to determine whether the information being reported belongs to you, is accurate and properly reflects your credit history.

If something looks wrong, document it before taking action. If everything appears accurate but you’re trying to understand what may be affecting your credit score, the next step is evaluating the credit factors shown on your report.

Want to See What May Be Affecting Your Credit Score?

Use our free Credit Score Improvement Calculator to explore which factors in your credit profile may be holding your score back and where potential improvement opportunities may exist.

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