Transunion credit reports are ultimately important for the sake of your finances. These reports allow you to manage your finances properly. However, to make use of the reports you should know how to read them and check whether information contained is accurate.

Follow the guide bellow so that you could use your transunion credit reports more effectively.

• You should learn how to distinguish one type of an account from another. Installments loans are normally specified with letter I, mortgages with M, revolving accounts are marked R, and lines of credit are indicated as C.
• It goes without saying that some notions and the way they are represented in transunion credit reports should not confuse you. That is the reason you should familiarize yourself with the way they mark current accounts. In brief, current accounts are noted as "CUR" and "OK" inside a green box.
• Knowing how they not late payments in the reports is also very important. Orange box containing the numbers 30, 60, 90, 120 or 150 stands for late payments, with numbers indicating how many days the payment has been late for.
• You are expected to know how to read monthly payment summary. The summary is expressed in numbers and printed to far right of the account information. Here is an example of monthly summary: 11122334455, with 1 standing for timely payment, and other numbers showing how many days late your payment was made. 2 is 30 to 59, 3 is 60 to 89, 4 is 90 to 119 and 5 is 120 days or more.
• Comprehend the numeric indication of collection accounts, repossessions and charge-off accounts. Collection accounts as "9B," Repossessions are denoted as "8," and charge offs as "9."
• Pay attention to the way they highlight negative information. When other than original payment plan has been applied, you see a black box with letters PP inside.  Charge off accounts and collections are marked CO, while RF inside the black box stands for foreclosures and repossessions.

Additional Tips

• If you have strong doubts regarding your ownership of an account you must claim investigation. By law all credit reporting agencies are obliged to help their clients in such cases.
• Transunion website  has a comprehensive breakdown of all the information contained on your credit report, so that you could interpret information and use reporting to your benefit.
• It is a good idea to keep a detailed phone log of the nature, date and time of the conversation for every person you speak to regarding disputed items. Such information might turn out very useful in preventing conflicts.
• You would find it useful to print a copy of Transunion credit report code definitions to keep it with your credit report.
• Don't leave any incorrect information as it is. Asking them to correct the mistakes wont do you harm, and your credit score won't be damaged.

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