Credit Report / Credit Reporting Bureau

You need credit to get just about anything done these days. If you want to buy a car, if you want to get a mortgage on a home or even if you just want to get something as simple as a cell phone you need credit.

A credit report is how these institutions decide whether they are going to grant you credit or not. It’s basically a synopsis of your credit history that tracks your payment records, how much credit you have and (gulp) how well you have repaid your credit in the past.

Credit reports are generated by credit bureaus who monitor all of these things, then pass the information on to banks and businesses.

Don’t think that you are alone by having a credit report in America. Over 205 million people in the united states alone have some for of credit that will show up on these credit reports. When you think about it, that is about two thirds of every American, of any age.

Your credit report is also available to judges and to the government who can access it for legal purposes if you go missing or if you break the law in any way. This information can obtained directly from them and you may not even know that your credit report is being looked at by another party.

If you want to apply for credit, in the form of a new mortgage or a credit card, whom ever you are applying to will go to one of the ‘big three’ credit bureaus in the United states (although these bureaus also operate outside of the United States as well.

The big three are:

• Equifax
• Experian
• Trans Union

There are several different types of credit reports. They include:

• Consumer credit reports
• Property manager credit reports
• Business credit reports (often for much larger credit requests. They go into much more detail and they often go back much farther in time.
• Employer Credit Reports _these often have everything on them, including your divers record and education.)
• Mortgage Broker Credit Reports (for buying or renting a home)