 TITLE: An Essential Guide to How Credit Works CONTENT: What Is a Credit Report?\n------------------------\nA credit report contains a history of your dealings with credit. You have three credit reports, one from each of the three national credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.\nYour credit report lists all of the accounts you've opened and closed in the recent past, along with how you've managed each. For example, if you've missed a payment or had an account sent to collections, it will show up on your credit report.\nYour credit report also lists other records, including bankruptcies, foreclosures, repossessions and other information that shows potential red flags to lenders. At the same time, on-time payments and longstanding responsible credit use will also be reflected in your report.\nFinally, your credit report lists other basic information, including your name, including aliases and misspellings reported by creditors; your birth date; Social Security number; current and past addresses; and recent inquiries that creditors have made to view your report.\n### How Does Credit Reporting Work?\nThe national credit reporting agencies collect information from lenders who report it. For example, if you have a credit card, it's likely that your card's issuer reports your account activity to one or more credit reporting agencies once a month.\nThe agencies then collect and organize the information into tradelines, which is a term used to describe individual credit accounts. Depending on the type of credit, you may see several different pieces of data, including your recent payment history, monthly payment, balance, original loan amount and more.\nIt's important to note that financial institutions aren't legally required to report account information to the credit reporting agencies. As a result, not all credit activity helps improve your credit history. Most banks, credit unions and other lenders, however, report to the agencies regularly.\n### How Do I Get My Credit Report?\nU.S. consumers have the legal right to get one free copy of their credit report from each of the credit reporting agencies every 12 months. You can request your free copy at AnnualCreditReport.com.\nIf you want regular access, you can typically get it from a free or paid service. For example, Experian offers free credit report access that's updated every 30 days on sign in, allowing you to track changes over short periods of time. END