Intro to Credit History
The next section is your credit history. Sometimes, the individual accounts are called trade lines. Each account will include the name of the creditor and the account number, which may be scrambled for security purposes.
You may have more than one account from a creditor. Many creditors have more than one kind of account, or if you move, they transfer your account to a new location and assign a new number. The entry will also include:
- When you opened the account
- The kind of credit (installment, such as a mortgage or car loan, or revolving, such as a department store credit card)
- Whether the account is in your name alone or with another person
- Total amount of the loan, high credit limit or highest balance on the card
- How much you still owe
- Fixed monthly payments or minimum monthly amount
- Status of the account (open, inactive, closed, paid, etc.)
- How well you’ve paid the account
On Experian’s report, your payment history is written in plain English — never pays late, typically pays 30 days late, etc. Other comments might include internal collection and charged off or default. Charge Off means the creditor has given up or thrown in the towel. The company has made efforts to collect the debt, realized that it’s not going to be paid, and subsequently wrote it off their books.
Other reports use payment codes ranging from 1 to 9; an R1 or I1 on a report is an indication of a good payment history on a revolving or installment account. Often, the code key will be listed on the report so you can better understand what the codes mean, but they may not. Here is a list of their meaning.
- 1 – pays on time
- 2 – 30 days late
- 3 – 60 days late
- 4 – 90 days late
- 5 – 120 days late
- 9 – Profit and loss / Collections / Charge Off
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