Use our guide to help review your annual report
Understand Your Credit Report
Protect your credit by requesting a free report from annualcreditreport.com. Then use our tips to help you spot errors and items that could affect your score.
Why pull a credit report?
You may request one report from each of the three major credit reporting companies—Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax—per year, for a total of three reports annually. Review your report to:
- Look for errors and request corrections
- See your big-picture payment and balance history
- Gain a better understanding of what creditors see when you request a loan
- Pinpoint where you need to improve, and monitor your progress
What's in a credit report?
Depending on the length of your credit history, your credit report could be as short as a few pages or quite long. Additionally, each of the three major credit reporting companies format their reports differently, but all will have key things in common:
- Personal information, such as names or aliases, various home addresses, and employer data
- Payment history, including monthly balances, timely or late payments, and the type of account (mortgage, revolving, installment)
- Ways to dispute inaccurate information
Get started
Download our sample guide to learn how to interpret your report and get insight on what items help and harm your credit score.
Download guide