Terminology - Credit Report

Your credit report is a historical document that may include payment habits, number of past and present credit or loan accounts, balance of those accounts, place and length of employment, and records of financial transactions.

Items which normally appear in a credit report are:

1. Credit score - a statistical formula that assigns a numerical value to your creditworthiness.
2. Applied-for Credit - Requests for loans or lines of credit which you personally initiated, such as credit cards, mortgages, or car loans.
3. Unapplied-for Credit - Items for which you did not initiate a request for credit, such as utilities, medical bills, or collection agency accounts.
4. Charge-Offs - Items that the original creditor has given up on trying to collect.
5. Judgments - A court order to repay a previously unpaid debt.