Credit Data and Scoring

Chapter Three

My credit report—some of it is right

Abstract

Data from tradelines (voluntary records from moneylenders), inquiries (requests to CRAs from creditors), and public record and collections (legal actions taken by creditors) are the foundation of the credit report and credit scores. I obtain my own credit report and display all this information (mostly its absence in my case), much in this chapter but all of it in the appendix. Accounts have been dropped, some of the data seems obscure, there is no record of bills paid except to moneylenders like credit card companies, and the fact that I pay my entire revolving balance each month is suppressed. Yet this is how I and everyone are judged financially. FICO, CRAs, and moneylenders ...