Credit report pages explain what appears on a consumer credit file, who gathers that information, and how lenders use it. This section is the right starting point when a borrower is reading a bureau file, monitoring new activity, or trying to understand negative reporting.
Many concepts here connect directly to scores, underwriting, disputes, and collections because the report is where those outcomes become visible.
- Credit Report
File of accounts, inquiries, payment history, and negative items used in lending and scoring decisions.
- Credit File
Record a credit bureau maintains about a consumer's reported accounts, inquiries, and negative items.
- Consumer Report
Reporting file covered by consumer-reporting law, including credit reports and some other decision-use records.
- Consumer Disclosure
Copy of a consumer's own reported information provided by a reporting agency for review, monitoring, and dispute purposes.
- Free Credit Report
No-cost access to a consumer's credit-report information through eligible channels provided under reporting rules.
- Personal Information
Identity details on a credit report such as name, address, and similar file-matching information.
- Employment Information
Job-related detail shown in or associated with a credit file, useful for identification context but not the same as tradeline data.
- Specialty Consumer Reporting Company
Consumer reporting company that focuses on a narrower data category than the big credit bureaus, such as tenant, employment, or check-writing history.
- Tenant Screening Report
Specialty consumer report used in rental decisions, often combining rental-history, credit, and background information.
- Credit Bureau
Credit bureau means a company that gathers, maintains, and distributes consumer credit-file information.
- Tradeline
Tradeline means an individual account entry on a Credit Report.
- Credit Inquiry
Record showing that someone accessed a consumer's credit file, with meaning that depends on the type of review.
- Hard Inquiry
Hard inquiry means a credit-file check tied to a credit application or another decision that can involve new borrowing risk.
- Account Review Inquiry
Soft inquiry created when an existing creditor reviews a current account instead of processing a brand-new application.
- Soft Inquiry
Soft inquiry means a credit-file review that is not treated like a full new-credit application pull.
- Promotional Inquiry
Soft inquiry tied to prescreening or offer selection instead of a completed application for new credit.
- Prescreened Offer
Prescreened offer means a credit or card offer sent after a softer preselection process rather than a full application approval review.
- Collection Account
Collection account means a debt that has been sent or sold to collections and is now being reported in that status.
- Paid Collection
Collection account that has been paid or resolved but may still appear on the credit report as a collection item.
- Account Status
Account status means the label or condition describing how a credit account is currently being reported.
- Paid as Agreed
Reporting label indicating an account was repaid according to its terms rather than through default or collection trouble.
- Last Reported
Date showing when information about an account or item was most recently updated with the reporting agency.
- Closed Account
Closed account means a credit account that is no longer open for new use even though it may still appear on the credit report.
- Public Record
Public record means a court or government record item that may be associated with a consumer's credit-reporting history.
- Reporting Error
Inaccurate, incomplete, or wrongly attributed information appearing on a credit report.
- Dispute
Dispute means a challenge to credit-report information that the consumer believes is inaccurate, incomplete, or not properly attributed.
- Dispute Results
Outcome of a credit-report dispute showing whether challenged information was changed, removed, or left as reported.
- Date of First Delinquency
Date when the delinquency that led to serious negative reporting first began, important for aging certain report items.
- Obsolescence Period
Reporting life of certain negative credit items before they should age off a consumer report under reporting rules.
- Derogatory Mark
Derogatory mark means negative credit-file information that suggests elevated repayment risk or account trouble.
- Authorized User
Authorized user means someone allowed to use another person's credit-card account without being the primary account holder.
- Identity Verification
Identity verification means the process of confirming that the person requesting credit or file access is who they claim to be.
- Credit Monitoring
Credit monitoring means ongoing observation of a consumer's credit-file activity for changes, alerts, or suspicious events.
- Average Age of Accounts
Average age of accounts means the typical age of the accounts on a credit file when viewed together.
- Dispute Letter
Dispute letter means a written notice used to challenge credit-report information the consumer believes is inaccurate or incomplete.