The next section is your credit history. Sometimes, the individual accounts are called trade lines.  Each account will include the name of the creditor and the account number, which may be scrambled for security purposes.

You may have more than one account from a creditor. Many creditors have more than one kind of account, or if you move, they transfer your account to a new location and assign a new number. The entry will also include:

  • When you opened the account
  • The kind of credit (installment, such as a mortgage or car loan, or revolving, such as a department store credit card)
  • Whether the account is in your name alone or with another person
  • Total amount of the loan, high credit limit or highest balance on the card
  • How much you still owe
  • Fixed monthly payments or minimum monthly amount
  • Status of the account (open, inactive, closed, paid, etc.)
    How well you’ve paid the account

On Experian’s report, your payment history is written in plain English — never pays late, typically pays 30 days late, etc. Other comments might include internal collection and charged off or default.

Charged off means the creditor has given up, thrown in the towel.  Basically, the company has made efforts to collect the debt, realized that it’s not going to be paid, and subsequently wrote it off.

Other reports use payment codes ranging from 1 to 9; an R1 or I1 on a report is an indication of a good payment history on a revolving or installment account.  Often, the code key will be listed on the report so you can better understand what the codes mean, but they may not.

Credit accounts are divided into five categories:  real estate, installment, revolving, collection and other.  Here is a better description of each category:

Real Estate: First and second mortgage loans on your home.

Installment: Accounts comprised of fixed terms with regular payments, such as a car loan.

Revolving: Accounts with opened terms with varying payments, such as a credit card account.

Collection: Accounts seriously past due that have been assigned to an attorney or collection agency.

Other: Accounts where the exact category is unknown. This could include 30-day accounts, such as an American Express card.

Your credit report lists a summary of the details and terms for each account. This summary includes information aboutthe account number, condition, balance, type and pay status for each account. The summary for collection records is slightly different.

The following information is for real estate, installment, revolving and other type records:

Creditor: The official account name.  This name may be different than you expect if your account is managed by a larger financial corporation.

Account Number: This is an identifying number for your account.  Typically, this would be a credit card number for a credit card account or a loan identification number for a mortgage.

A portion of the number is hidden for security reasons.  A partial account number is all that is needed to file a dispute about the record.

Condition: This is the account’s status as open or closed, according to the most recent update from your creditor.

Balance: The amount you presently owe on the account based on the last reported activity.  Very recent activities may not yet have appeared in the bureaus’ computer system so this balance may be a few days out-of-date.

Type: The account’s specific type. Some common types are real estate, automobile, educational and credit card accounts.

Pay Status: The account’s payment status, according to the most recent update from your creditor.

For each account, the report also displays an illustrated payment history over the last 24 months. There will be a key at the top of this section describes each payment history symbol and what it indicates for your account. Green boxes marked “OK” show that your payment was made on time.

Most credit reports also give you more in-depth information about specific accounts.  This is also an important part of the credit report you’ll want to review for accuracy.

The following information may be reported for your account in this section:

Past Due: The amount of payment overdue as of the most recent reported activity. Very recent payments may take a few days to appear on your credit report.

High Balance: The most you have ever owed on this account. In the case of a credit card, this is the highest balance you’ve ever charged. For a mortgage, it is the initial amount of the mortgage.

Terms: This is the number of payments you have scheduled with a creditor. Most commonly this applies to loan accounts. For example, an auto loan may have a repayment plan scheduled over 36 months and a home loan may have a repayment plan scheduled over 360 months.

Limits: For a credit card or other revolving account, this is the maximum amount you are approved to borrow.

Payment: This is the minimum amount you are required to pay each month toward the account.

Opened: The date the account was opened.

Reported: The last date when any activity for this account was shown. Activities include payments, credit card billings and changes in your terms. Very recent activity may not yet show on your account, since it takes time for it to appear in the credit reporting agency’s system.

Responsibility: This indicates your responsibility for the account. For example individual, joint or co-signer.

Late Payments: A summary of your 30, 60 and 90 day late payments over the past 7 years. Please note that the figures in the seven year history include any late payments shown in the two-year history.

Remarks: Notes about the status or condition of your account.

Collection accounts are accounts that are seriously past due and have been transferred to an attorney, collection agency or creditor’s internal collection agency. As your debt is transferred between different agencies, you may see several records on your report for the same debt.

Only one record should be marked as open at a time. All the collection records and the original debt record will expire from your credit report at the same time.

Collection records use a unique summary format on your credit report:

Creditor Name: The official name of the company that is currently attempting to collect the debt.

Account Number: An identifying number for your account with the collection agency. This is not the same as the account number on your original debt.

Original Creditor: The name of the original creditor where you accumulated your debt. This could be an account that is listed on your credit report (such as a credit card) or an account that is not listed on your report (such as a library, video rental or cell phone company). If this creditor was a medical office, the name may be masked for your privacy.

Responsibility: This indicates your responsibility for the account. For example individual, joint or co-signer.

Condition: The current status of your collection record. For example open, closed or paid.

Original Balance: The amount of debt owed on the original account before it was transferred.

Date Opened: The date the account was transferred to the collection agency.

Date Reported: The date of the collection agency’s last update to this account record.

Remarks: Notes about the account as reported to each credit reporting agency. For example, this section may note that the collector has been unable to locate you or that you have not yet paid the debt.

Filed under: Self Credit Repair Know How