If you have ever applied for a loan, then you must be well aware that the first thing that any lending or financial institution asks or check is the credit report. Whether you will be approved for the loan or not is majorly decided by your performance on your credit report. Generally, people after being rejected go knock the door of other lenders instead of analysing the report.

The main objective of a credit report is to provide information to the lenders about the borrower whether he/she fits well to qualify for the loan or not. But have you ever thought what’s exactly is mentioned in your credit report? Why lenders give it so much weight to the report? Today, we are going to discuss everything in this blog and will be clearing your doubt. So let us dig deeper.

The Information listed in my Credit report  

Here are the various types of information that the credit report of a person generally includes:

1. Personal Information

The first thing any lender sees in the credit report of a borrower is his/her personal information such as the name, address, and date of birth. Other things mentioned in the report are whether the person is registered on the electoral roll of the current address, social security number, and details of the current and past employers. All this information helps the lenders in identifying you and analyze whether you are a worthy borrower. There are some other details mentioned such as a person’s gender, religion, ethnicity, criminal record, medical history, and political background which are not very important in the eyes of the lenders.  

• Credit History

Another important thing that is mentioned in the credit report is the credit history of the borrower. Here, all the details related to the borrower account is mentioned including the year when each account was opened, the credit amount,the balance left and other useful things related to your payment history. The lenders will go through your credit history to check if you have made all your payments on time or not. Also, the account that you have closed will still be mentioned in the credit report until 10 years of the closing date. One can easily have a look at their credit report by paying a small amount of fee.Therefore, you should check your credit report from time to time to make sure that all the information given there are precise and accurate.

• Credit inquiries

Every time anyone goes through your credit report, be it a bank, credit union, landlord, credit card provider, or any other financial institution, it will be given on the report. You should know that this can affect your credit rating slightly, and these details are generally available after two years. However, there is a way to stop this where you can use the special arrangement where no one will be allowed to see your credit report without your permission. Also, when you are in a need of a loan, keep the numbers of lenders whom you will be meeting limited. Meeting too many lenders simultaneously can affect your credit report and any lender will easily be able to see how many lenders you have met before coming to them.

• Public records

There are basically three types of public records that you can find on your credit report. The most important thing here to notice is that these public records stay on the file for about 10 years and their presence has a serious impact on the credit report of a person. These public records will consist of:

• Any bankruptcies that you went through
• IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement)
• CCJs (County Court Judgements)

Well, there are ways to deal with such situations for example, you can get rid of CCJ case by applying for CCJ loans from direct lenders such as Instant bad credit loans, Amigo loans, Oppo loans and others.

• Personal Statement

There is a section in the credit report where other useful information or evidence is provided that can affect your credit rating like the unpaid debts, bills and rents that are still due. Thus, it is better that you pay all your bills and rents on time if you really want to make sure that your credit profile is in really good and free of any degrading factors. Apply for a loan when there is an emergency case where you have no elsewhere to go.

So, now you must have got the clear idea of what information that your credit report usually carry. Therefore, if you are going to any financial institution or thinking of applying for a loan, then make sure that you go through your credit report once and take steps if there is any room for any improvement.