A credit report is a record of a person's borrowing and repayment history, compiled by a credit bureau from information supplied by lenders and other creditors. It lists accounts such as credit cards, loans and mortgages, their balances and limits, whether payments were made on time, and public records such as bankruptcies. Lenders, landlords, insurers and some employers use it to judge how reliably someone handles debt.
A credit report is the raw data; a credit score, such as a FICO Score, is a number calculated from it. In the United States the main reports come from three nationwide consumer reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and the content and use of reports are governed by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) of 1970. Most countries have similar systems, run by private bureaus, by the central bank, or both. Businesses have their own commercial credit reports, which are a separate system.
Credit report in plain terms
A credit report works like a school report card for borrowing. Each lender that has given you credit sends in a regular note saying how much you owe and whether you paid on time. The bureau files those notes together, so when a new lender is deciding whether to trust you, it can read the whole record instead of taking your word for it.
Like a report card, it can help or hurt. A long run of on-time payments makes lenders comfortable; missed payments or debts sent to collectors make them cautious, raise the price of borrowing, or lead to a refusal. And as with any record kept by someone else, mistakes happen, which is why people are entitled to see their own file and have errors fixed.
What a credit report contains
A typical US credit report has four main parts:
- Identifying information. Name, current and past addresses, date of birth, and usually a Social Security number and employer details. This section is not used to calculate scores.
- Credit accounts. Each credit card, revolving credit line, instalment loan and mortgage, with opening date, credit limit or loan amount, balance, and a month-by-month payment history.
- Collections and public records. Debts passed to collection agencies, and bankruptcies.
- Inquiries. A list of who has requested the report. "Hard" inquiries, made when a person applies for credit, can affect scores; "soft" inquiries, such as checking one's own file or pre-screened offers, do not.
Reports generally do not include income, savings balances, race, religion or marital status. Information comes from lenders, called furnishers, which report voluntarily but must report accurately. Because not every lender reports to all three bureaus, the three files on one person can differ.
How credit reports are used
Lenders pull reports during underwriting to estimate credit risk, often together with a score. The report affects whether credit is offered, the interest rate, and the credit limit; a history of default or a poor credit score usually means higher costs. Under the FCRA, reports may be obtained only for a "permissible purpose", which includes credit decisions, insurance underwriting, tenant screening and, with the person's written consent, employment checks as part of a background check. A lender that turns down an applicant or offers worse terms because of the report must send an adverse action notice naming the bureau used.
Under the FCRA, most negative information can stay on a report for seven years, and bankruptcies for up to ten. Positive account history can remain longer. Some newer forms of credit, such as buy now, pay later loans, have only recently begun to appear on reports, and practice still differs between providers and bureaus.
Consumer rights and protections
US consumers have several rights over their reports:
- Free access. The law guarantees free reports through AnnualCreditReport.com, the only site authorised for this purpose. The three bureaus offered weekly free reports during the pandemic and made weekly access permanent in September 2023.
- Disputes. A person can dispute inaccurate or incomplete information with the bureau, which generally has 30 days to investigate (45 in some cases) and must correct or delete information that cannot be verified. Paid credit repair agencies cannot remove accurate negative information.
- Fraud alerts and freezes. Since September 2018, security freezes, which stop new creditors accessing the file, have been free at all three bureaus, as have one-year fraud alerts. Both are key defences against identity theft and synthetic identity fraud.
Medical debt reporting has changed in recent years. In 2022 and 2023 the three bureaus voluntarily removed paid medical collections and those under $500. A Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule finalised in January 2025 to bar most medical debt from reports was vacated by a federal court in Texas in July 2025, so the bureaus' voluntary policies and state laws now set the rules. Because reports hold sensitive personal information, breaches at bureaus raise serious data privacy concerns.
Credit reports outside the United States
In the United Kingdom, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are the main credit reference agencies, and individuals can obtain their statutory report free of charge under data protection law. In the EU, many countries run public credit registers at the central bank alongside private bureaus, and the GDPR gives people the right to access and correct their data. India has four Reserve Bank-licensed credit information companies (TransUnion CIBIL, Experian, Equifax and CRIF High Mark), each required to provide one free full report a year. In Pakistan, the State Bank of Pakistan runs the electronic Credit Information Bureau (eCIB), and private credit bureaus operate under the Credit Bureaus Act 2015. In countries with thin bureau coverage, lenders increasingly use alternative data such as bank-account history obtained through open banking.