Reviewing and Understanding Your Credit Report

When you pull your credit report and you look at it you may find that there are a series of numbers, letters, and other references that make absolutely no sense to you. When you do pull your credit report, you will want to find that the credit score is no less than 620 and preferably higher than 700. If it is not this high, you will need to make changes to improve your credit score to increase your buying power.

Symbols On Your Credit Report

There are several symbols on your credit report that you need to know to really understand what it says. On every credit report there are certain symbols such as:

O means that the account is open and the entire amount is due each month
R means revolving, which means the payment varies from month to month
I means installment and this is a fixed payment such as an auto loan

Some other symbols that you should know of are:

0 means approved
1 means that you have paid as agreed to
2 this means that you are 30 or more days late
3 means that you are 60 or more days late
4 this means that you are 90 days or more late
5 means the account is more than 120 days late
7 means you are making regular payments
8 means that the collateral has been repossessed
9 means the debt has been charged off

Some other terms that you should be familiar with include:

J refers to a joint debt
I refers to a debt assigned to an individual
U is an undesignated debt
A means authorized user
T means terminated
M means maker
C refers to cosigner
B refers to on behalf of another person
S refers to shared

These are all terms that you may or may not see on your credit report. As you go through it you need to be sure that you are taking note of inaccurate items that need to be disputed. You should know that foreclosure, bankruptcy, repossession, default, and past due payments are some of the things on your credit report that negatively impact your credit report the most.