Imagine you get the copy of your credit report. At first sight everything you can see is a tangle of information such as a long list of businesses that have checked your report, your last three addresses, and lots of credit accounts. Now you should go deeper into it. But which information should you look at first? Read on to learn more about your credit report.

The term 'credit report' stands for a factual record of your payment history and other credit-related items that lenders use to help determine your creditworthiness and the potential risk of lending to you. The information on your report is calculated by the credit bureaus from many different bits of data on whether you make payments on time and how many of your debts are outstanding. Your credit report is constantly being updated because the lenders always send new information to the bureau.

When checking your credit report first thing to pay attention to is inaccuracies which are rather common in credit files. Sometimes such mistakes are simple errors made by workers, other times they may occur through the inadvertent mix of files of people with similar names. Here you should exercise caution since unfamiliar or inaccurate information can also be a sign of identity fraud. Identity fraud means that someone uses your name and accounts secretly. To have a better idea of such mistakes or fraud look at the following information:

• Personal Information. All the names and addresses indicated on your report should be accurate? An incorrect address or unknown suffix, such as Jr. or Sr., may be a sign that your file is mixed with that of somebody else. Which is more, a recent change of address is an indication that somebody may use your file without you to know about it.
• Public Records. All the bankruptcies, judgments or liens listed on your report should be complete and accurate. Some bankruptcies can stay on your report for up to 7-10 years.
• Accounts. Check basic information such as your credit limit, current balance, and date the account was opened. Make sure that there are no incorrect late payments or charge-offs. To reveal it check out the detailed payment information by month. If you find some unfamiliar accounts or activity on accounts that you thought were closed it may serve as a sign that your account was opened.
• Inquiries. In this section you will find the information on who has received data from your credit report and who was given your name recently. Lenders check information on your credit report in order to offer you special rates. Inquiries are also recorded when you apply for new credit or have your credit report checked by your employer or insurance company.

So, you have checked the information on your credit file. If everything is correct you can rest assured. However, do not forget to regularly monitor your credit report to see that everything is steady.

If you detect derogatory entries or mistakes on your credit report, what you need to do is to contact the company that reported these inaccuracies and dispute them. You can make it free of charge. You can also contact the lender and ask them to send new accurate information to the credit bureau. They are obliged to do this.

If there are signs of fraud, contact the credit bureaus immediately to place a fraud alert on your report. Then, call your bank and credit card companies in order to protect your accounts.