Equifax Free Credit Report

Introduction

Credit reports do not follow a standard for displaying the data they contain. Although all credit reports will contain, more or less, the same basic information, some companies present a person’s credit information in a different way than others; some reports include more details, some are easier to read. In this review we’ll talk a little about the Equifax free credit report, and highlight some of its features.

The Equifax free credit report can be obtained in http://www.equifax.com. It should be noticed that they will send you their free credit report when you purchase one of their other packages, otherwise you must pay $10 to get it (unless you are requesting the free annual credit report you are entitled to receive as per the FACT act, which you can get in http://www.annualcreditreport.com).

Credit Report Format

The overall layout and format of the report is well taken care of, without sacrificing the amount of information available. As it is a web-based credit report, things that are not “vital” are hidden behind hyperlinks, easily accessible to the person who needs to see the details of every item.

There are several sections in the report, some of them divided into sub-sections, and some of these sub-sections have a “see more details” button that shows more information. This keeps the screen clean and neat, at the expense of a little more “path to walk” when looking for certain details about a specific subject.
 

Personal Information Section

This section contains the following information:

• Name and social security number.
• Date of birth
• Current and previous addresses
• Other types of ID
• Employment history
• Alerts
• Consumer Statements

Credit Summary Section

The credit summary section on the Equifax report contains a very brief summary of all the accounts information in the report. Data showed in this section includes the number, balance and type of your accounts, as well as how many of them are currently open or closed. The number of past due accounts is also shown.

The Credit Summary section has several subsections:

• Mortgage accounts
• Installment accounts
• Revolving accounts
• Other accounts
• Open accounts
• Closed accounts
• Accounts in good standing
• Accounts currently past due
• Negative account history
• Inquiries within the last 12 months

Each one of these subsections (except the last one) contains a table with basic information about the accounts, like the name and number of the account, the date it was opened, the current balance, the date it was reported and the credit limit. Additionally, there is a “show details” foe each account, which shows very detailed information, including an 81-month payment history, of each account.

The last subsection shows information about inquiries made during the last 12-months, and has a “see details” button that shows the inquirer’s contact information.

All these subsections feature a “see all details” button, which makes all the information about all the items to appear in the same page.

Account Information Section

This section contains all the information that was presented through the sub-sections of the “credit summary” item, only in the same page (i.e. not categorized by type or status of the account).

Inquiries Section

This section of the Equifax credit report lists all inquiries made to your credit file in the last 12 months. Inquiries that affect your credit score and the ones that don’t are both listed. There is also information about what kind of information was made available.

Collections Section

If you have an account which you didn’t pay as agreed with the creditor, he may have hired a collection agency to collect the money from you. If that’s the case, the relevant information about the collection will be in this section.

Public Records section

The information in this section is a list of judgments, liens, bankruptcies and garnishments, as per federal, state and county court records.

Dispute file information Section

This section contains information that will be useful in the case you find the data on the credit report to be incorrect, possibly indicating abnormal use of your accounts. Using the info on this section, you can make Equifax start an online investigation on the data you need to be checked.

Free Equifax Credit Report Review

We found the Equifax credit report to be truly excellent. The amount of information presented is more than enough for everyone who needs accurate and complete credit facts of any kind.

The simplicity of use is also very good, not cluttering the screen with unnecessary data until the user clicks to see that specific data.

Other products

Since this credit report comes free with the purchase of another Equifax product, here are the most convenient ones.

Score Watch

This credit score monitoring services package gives you the ability to keep track of your FICO credit score easily. Alerts are flagged on a daily basis, and the package includes two Score Power reports free (Score power reports are simplified credit reports that don’t contain as much information as the one reviewed in this article, but instead includes useful estimations and information about the future interest rates you can get, as well as a credit score variation history). Alerts are sent by email whenever a change that may affect your future interest rates is detected. The package is priced $8.95 /month. More.

Credit Watch with 3-in-1 monitoring

This is the full featured service, providing comprehensive credit monitoring not only for your Equifax credit, but also for your Experian and TransUnion credit. Purchasing this package, you are entitled to a completely free 3-in-1 credit report with information from all the three agencies, plus unlimited free Equifax credit reports whenever you want them. Your credit will be watched by fraud specialists that can detect possible theft attempt. The package is priced $ 12.95 /month. More.