Reading a Credit Report the Right Way
We are presented with decisions and choices multiple times on a daily basis with each one having a power to have huge implications on our lives and how it would turn out to be. Credit reports are a reflection of all such decisions that you made and are a depiction of your consumer behavior. A good credit score can give you more power and freedom. The company will not only have a way out in case of the financial crisis but can also be more secure.
To know better, it is always helpful that you know how to read your credit report and what things you need to be looking at in more depth.
The personal details
Be it a credit report for a person or a company; it never hurts to double check all the personal details along with their spellings. Having spelling mistakes in this section is not a rare occurrence, and thus every detail here should be checked properly. At the end of the day, responsibility lies on your end to make sure that every information on this page regarding your company is stated correctly.
History of accounts
This is the most important and the hardest section you would have to read the report. It contains information regarding each and every account and payment you have made. Depending on the number of years the company has been in business, the length of this section may vary. This is not it. The section will also have details on the collection accounts which may appear in the same section or someplace else depending on who is compiling the report.
Some of the sub-sections that you can expect to see here are:
• The name of the company providing the report
• The account numbers which might be shortened to preserve the privacy alongside their types.
• The dates the accounts were opened on with the terms of payment each one follows
• The balance, credit limit and the highest credit that has ever been seen for each account
• The payment history of each account. It will also have details of any loans that were taken and how each one was repaid.
• The total amount, if there is any, which is owed to the account and when the company was made aware of this remaining balance.
Thus, in short, it would have information regarding each and everything that took place in the company accounts and your way of dealing with each one of them.
Records that are public
Since it is a consolidated report, you should also expect to see public records mentioned explicitly in the report. They would include overdue payments for child support, tax liens, bankruptcies, court records for the country and other relevant data.
Credit inquiries
This would contain inquiry details about the credits of the company for the past two years. Not all but only the hard inquiries are made to show in this report for the lenders to review and analyze.
These are just some of the sections that will be a part of the credit report. Find out more about what else you should be expecting on your credit score so that you are better prepared to handle such matters for your company.