Parts of a credit report

A typical credit report comprises six sections. These are:

1. Report header information: This is the first section of the report. It contains details like name of the consumer/borrower, the date when the report was created, and a control number that is assigned each time a report is generated by the system.

2. Consumer/borrower information: It contains name of the borrower, date of birth, gender, borrower's telephone number(s) and identification details like Permanent account number (PAN), voter card number, passport number.

3. Address(es): This part shows the addresses of the borrowers. A maximum of four addresses can appear on each report. An address usually contains consumer's city/town, district, state and postal code. It also contains descriptive information like "care of", "son of" etc.

4. Summary: Beneath the addresses section, lies the summary section. It summarizes the account and the enquiries sections. If you want to check the details, you can refer the sections separately.

5. Accounts: The accounts section lists all your accounts, installment such as car loan or mortgage, or revolving in case of credit card. This part shows the date on which the account was opened, type of credit account. It also shows name(s) on the account, credit limit or highest card balance, amount of monthly payment, account status that can be open, closed, inactive, paid or other and lastly the promptness of payments.

6. Enquiries: the last section of the report deals with the enquiries made against the borrower. It shows the name of the member that made the enquiry, the date when it was made, type of account for which the inquiry was made and amount of credit for which the enquiry was made.