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The information reflected in your credit report consists of a few pieces related to your financial history as it pertains to credit. It is always useful to know what is included in you credit report and what is not as this information determines whether or not credit grantors should extend credit to you.

The following pieces of information make up your credit report:

1. Personal identifying information. It includes your name, address, telephone number, social security number, and employer. Your credit report will also contain current and previous addresses and employers. Your spouse’s name may be included into the credit report as well.

2. Credit history. It is what the major part of your credit report is occupied by. This includes all accounts you have with banks, finance companies, mortgage companies, retail stores and any other company that has granted credit to you. Each of these accounts is reflected in your credit history in detail, e.g. when the account was opened, the type of account it is, the credit limit or amount of loan, the current balance, and your monthly payment amount. This section of your credit report also provides the information about late payments and missed payments.

3. Public records. They include anything that pertains to your credit worthiness, like tax liens, court judgments and bankruptcies.

4. Inquiries to your credit report. Whenever a credit granter requests a copy of your credit report an inquiry is added. Some companies receive your name and address to offer you credit or some other product, in particular, the companies that send pre-approved credit card offers. These companies are included in the inquiry section of your credit report.

5. Dispute statements. In case you find any inaccurate information on your credit report you can dispute it; these dispute statements are reflected in your credit report as well.

The information your credit report does not provide includes: race, state of health, criminal records, driving records, income, bank account balances, religion, and driving records.

However, your credit report may vary and contain different pieces of information depending on each particular request. For example, the consumer version, i.e. the version provided to you includes all the above mentioned information and a full listing of inquiries made for your credit report. Another version is the business version of the credit report; it includes only inquiries that have been made with a permissible purpose