What's in a Credit Report?

Source : http://www.creditorweb.com/ permits to republish here.

Thanks to a new federal law put into place in September of 2005,
everyone is entitled to one free credit report each year.  This is
so that you can verify that your report does not contain any false
information, and so you can see how your credit rates.  Getting
your annual free report is as easy as going to the authorized source,
www.annualcreditreport.com and requesting one.

Once you have your free report, what in the world do all those
abbreviations, numbers and codes mean?!  The most widely used
system for scoring is the FICO score, developed by The Fair Isaac
Corporation, and the number determines the risk to extend credit to an
individual.  Credit reports are usually divided into sections;
identifying information, public records, credit history, and inquiries
to your credit report from creditors looking to extend you credit based
on your credit score. 

The identifying information includes your name, address, and social
security number.  Make sure they are all correct.  Usually
this section will also include a list of your previous addresses, your
date of birth, phone number, spouse's name, employers
information. 
The public records section is the section you hope has no
information.  This is where a bankruptcy or judgment would show up
on your report, and it will harm your rating more than anything else on
the report, and take longer to repair.

The credit history section is the most confusing.  It will list
every creditor you've ever had business with, including accounts that
have been closed and those that remain open with no balances, and
accounts that you are currently making payments on.  Depending on
which credit reporting agency you get your report from, this section
will actually be displayed differently on each report.  Experian's
report displays it in ”english”, and states everything in common sense
terms, like ”pays on time”, ”pays 30 days late”, etc.  Reports
from other agencies might use numerical codes in a table that you have
to refer to another page to find out what each code means.  Either
way, make sure you agree with each creditors reporting of you since
this is how your score is determined.  If you have accounts that
you don't have the credit cards for anymore, or a loan that has been
paid off but remains on your report as a revolving credit (money
available to you as you pay it down), call and write each company to
ask them to close the account completely and report that to the credit
agencies.  Otherwise, it appears that you have all of that money
available to you, and that goes against your debt to income ratio.

The section called ”inquiries”, and it includes a list of everyone who
has ever looked at your report.  This will include credit
companies you've contacted to request a credit card or loan, but it
will also include what is considered ”soft” inquiries.  Soft
inquiries are any promotional offers, such as a retail store checking
into your credit history to determine whether or not to mail you an
offer for their credit card.  Soft inquiries do not harm your
overall credit score.

You can also get a copy of a credit report any time you've been denied
credit.  This is because there is always the possibility that
there are errors in your report, which prevented you from obtaining the
credit you applied for.  Regardless of how you get your report,
take the time to look it over and find any discrepancies (immediately
call the creditors in question and straighten it out) and close out any
accounts that you no longer use but are showing open and available to
you on your credit report.  Having your report will show you where
you stand if you're considering going for a mortgage, new vehicle, or
other loan.

This article is courtesy of CreditorWeb.com, where you can compare business credit card offers and apply for credit cards online.

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