Your credit history is maintained by three major nationwide credit reporting agencies: Equifax (equifax.com), Experian (experian.com), and TransUnion (transunion.com). These agencies receive information about you from your creditors and list it on your credit report. They are interested in things such as whether you make payments on time, your outstanding debt balances, and your available credit limits. Credit reporting agencies don’t make credit decisions; they simply report information provided to them on your credit reports.
Each of your credit reports from the three agencies is slightly different, but they generally contain the following four types of information:
Personal information includes your name, current and previous addresses, Social Security number, birth date, and employer.
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Account information lists your open accounts and your closed accounts for up to a certain period of time.
Credit inquiries include a list of companies and employers that have made inquiries about you because you applied for a credit account or job.
Public information is data that’s available in the public records about you, including bankruptcies, foreclosures, liens for unpaid income taxes, and legal judgments.
The information in your credit report sticks with you for a long time. Credit accounts with negative information (for example, late payments) remain on your credit report for seven years from the date your payment became past due, even after you close the account or pay it off in full. Credit accounts with positive information remain on your credit report for 10 years after you close the account or pay it off in full.