【2023.9 Update】The most authoritative credit report website Annual Credit Report now offers free weekly reports from all three major credit bureaus! It used to be available only once per year, but this has now become a permanent benefit. See below for a detailed guide on how to use it and how to read your credit report.

What Is a Credit Report?

For people living in the U.S., credit history is closely tied to everyday life. Renting an apartment, getting a cell phone plan, opening a credit card, applying for loans, and more all require a credit check. A credit report, as the name suggests, is the report that contains this credit history.

In the U.S., there are three major credit bureaus (in no particular order):

  • Experian (EX)
  • Equifax (EQ)
  • Transunion (TU)

There are also many smaller credit bureaus. For example, before applying for a US Bank credit card, people often recommend freezing SageStream (formerly ID Analytics), as well as ARS (Advanced Resolution Services).

But in this article, we will discuss only the major credit bureaus.

Credit History and Credit Scores

See ymlulu’s article on this site: An Overview of Credit History and Credit Scores.

Why Get Your Credit Report?

  • Check for errors and report them promptly if you find any
  • Check for identity theft or unauthorized use, and dispute it promptly if needed
  • Accurately see hard pulls on that bureau as well as account opening dates, especially for Chase’s 5/24 policy

How to Get Your Credit Report

Under U.S. laws related to credit history, individuals can obtain one free credit report each year from each credit bureau (Experian, Equifax, and Transunion).

The easiest way is of course online. Specifically, just go to https://www.annualcreditreport.com/ and follow the steps there to view your credit report.

Click the red box to start checking your credit report.

After clicking the red box, you will go to the next page.

Here you will enter some personal information. Just fill it out truthfully.

Here you choose which credit bureau you want to check. In this example, chanye chose Experian because TU and EQ credit reports can be obtained weekly through CreditKarma.

Next, you will need to answer some additional verification questions. These are similar to standard identity verification questions for credit history. Once you finish them, you can access your credit report.

How to Read a Credit Report

After completing the steps above, you will have successfully obtained your credit report. Now chanye will explain what each section of the credit report means.

Of course, chanye recommends saving this report as a PDF for future reference.

Personal Information

As the name suggests, this is the personal information section. It generally includes your name, phone number, birth year, past/current addresses, and so on.

Negative Records

This section generally shows whether you have any collection records, bankruptcy records, and other negative information.

Account Information

Below this, you will see all of your account information, including credit cards, loans, and more.

For example, this is what chanye’s second Discover account looks like:

Here, you can clearly see the account opening date, account number, current balance, balances for each statement period, and payment history.

Credit Inquiry History

Hard Pull

Here you can see all instances where institutions requested your personal credit report information. Note the content marked in the red box: the credit inquiries below that section can be seen by all other viewers (not just you), which is what we commonly call a hard pull.

What does a hard pull look like? Here is an excerpt of chanye’s HP records from BofA, Chase, AMEX, and Citi for reference.

Soft Pull

The inquiries below this section can be seen only by the person checking the report (yourself), so they do not affect your credit score. These are called soft pulls.

Fun fact: here you will probably see lots of crazy soft pull records from various financial institutions, including the infamous credit one (note: not Capital One). For example, this appeared in chanye’s soft pull history:

Just look at the frequency of those soft pulls—pretty wild... Capital One is even more so... PS: chanye does not have a C1 card.

Summary

That’s all from chanye on credit reports. After getting your credit report, the most important thing is to review it carefully. If you find any inaccurate information (which is not uncommon), contact the relevant credit bureau promptly to correct it by filing a dispute. Also, the three major credit bureaus’ reports are each free once per year, and their timing is tracked separately, so you can rotate among them and request one bureau’s report every four months.