#My Annual Credit Report

If you are asking the question, “How can I take help of my annual credit report?” then you first need to know all about the credit scores and credit reports. The credit scores are the numerical representation of a person’s credit handling and credit worthiness.

There are several types of credit scores and each of these credit scores is mostly unique to the issuing bureau.

Even though these credit scores are different due to different sources, they all indicate almost accurately the financial conditions and the ability of the person to handle credits.

Which agencies maintain my annual credit report?

The credit scores are generally calculated depending on the person’s credit history, which includes past and present credits, the credit card transactions and the repayment of the credits. These credit scores are obtained from the credit reports of the consumers and these credit reports and maintained by the credit bureaus. There are three major credit bureaus in the country – the Experian, the Trans Union and the Equifax.

Among these three the credit bureau named Equifax is the largest and the Credit bureau call the Trans Union is the smallest. The reports issued by each of the bureaus will be different from each other since not all the lenders and creditors report the transaction information appropriately and uniformly to the three bureaus.

Some of the lenders may report to one, some to two and only a few are found to report uniformly to all the three bureaus.

How are my annual credit report and credit score calculations done?

The credit scores thus calculated often differ because of the different credit reports from the different bureaus. The difference also occurs due to the different scoring models used in the calculation procedure taken up by the bureaus.

There are factors like payment history of the person, the amounts owed in the past and present and also the length of the different credits, which are often taken into account while calculating the credit scores.

Some of the credit bureaus use some common well known software for the credit score calculation and some have their own calculation methods for the purpose. So with the different methods taken up the credit scores come out different. But, even if the credit scores are different the difference is too less to be counted.

It is extremely important for a person to be aware of his/her credit report and one should try and keep a close look at the credit report activities to keep it well maintained and get it improving when required. So if you are still asking about ‘my annual credit report’ and wish to improve your credit history, it’s time to approach the major credit bureaus.