Experian Free Credit Report

Introduction

Credit reports are useful not only for keeping track of credit history, but also to detect any attempt of identity theft, a fast growing type of fraud that may destroy not only credit but also the whole life of a victim. There are places on the Internet where you can obtain free credit reports online. In this review, we’ll talk about the Experian free credit report.

The Experian free credit report can be obtained in http://www.freecreditreport.com. This free report is indeed very accurate and comprehensive, one of the most useful credit reports we have found online.

Credit Report Format

The format of this report is truly very well designed, as it achieves the mission of presenting valuable information, and avoids confusing the reader with unnecessary items at the same time.

The report is divided into several sections, each one showing a specific type of information to the reader. The Experian free credit report sections are as follows:

Personal Profile Section

This section contains your personal historical data as per your Experian credit file, including:

• Your registered legal names
• Your date of birth
• Your current address
• An historical list of your previous addresses
• The name of your current employer
• An historical list of your previous employers

The information doesn’t include previous jobs dates, which helps prevent confusion.

Credit Summary Section

The credit summary section of this free credit report gives a quick, easy to read look at your credit status, both current and past. It lists all the accounts on your name, both open and closed, and gives a quick look into the balance of each one. It also lists all delinquencies reported, useful for detecting irregularities.

This information is separated into several sub-sections:

• Real Estate-related history
• Revolving
• Installment
• Other information

There is also a “Total” sub-section, which shows the overall status of the categories mentioned in the list above.

Public Records Section

In this section you will find any information present in federal district bankruptcy records, court records (both state-wide and country-wide), overdue child support records (in states where applicable), tax liens and monetary judgments. This section is useful to identify any possible criminal activity performed by a potential identity thief.

For each one of these records, you can see the following information:

• Type (suit, bankruptcy, etc.)
• Filing date
• Court
• Plaintiff
• Liability
• Asset amount

These are presented as an historical list, as these records remain in your credit report for as much as 10 years.

Credit Inquiries Section

This is the simplest section on your free credit report, yet the most important. It contains a comprehensive list of all the names of those who requested a copy of your credit report, and the date each one has requested it. This information can be used to detect any possible attempt of stealing your identity, as well as for keeping track of your history in a clean and efficient way.

Account History Section

This section shows information that is specific to each one of your opened accounts, both current and past.

For each account, you will find information such as:

• Account name
• Account number  
• Account type
• Current account status (open, closed, etc)
• Monthly payment
• Date the account was opened
• Current account balance
• Account Terms
• High balance
• Account limit
• Past due items
• Payment status
• Comments

This section also contains a good 24-month payment history table for each one of the listed accounts.  A sample is shown below.

This part of the report is closely analyzed by the credit analyst, looking for not payment patterns along your credit history. A sporadic 30- or even a 60-day delay may not hurt your profile, but a recurrent delay pattern will be seen suspiciously. A 90-day or higher delay will likely mean a yellow flag in your evaluation, and any red flag will be negative for your credit expectation.

Free Experian Credit Report Review

As we stated above, the Experian Free credit report is indeed very complete, allowing easy and accurate access to valuable credit information.

We are particularly fond of the simple yet effective way in which information is presented to the user, allowing literally anyone to understand their own credit history, detect irregularities and manage their credit easily.

In addition, the complete yet easy to understand “account history” section lets anyone keep track of their credit changes and variations in a simple way, and the 24-month payment history table is simply excellent.

Other products

In addition to the Experian Free Credit report, freecreditreport.com offers other credit products that may be very interesting, at fair prices. These include credit reports from Experian as well as credit reports for the other credit agencies, TransUnion and Equifax.

Free Credit report and PLUS Credit Score Report package

A “credit score” is a number that reflects your credit history and reputation. Different agencies use different ways of calculating your credit score, but they all mean the same: if your score is low, you have bad credit, if it’s high, you have good credit. Lenders use this score to decide if you can borrow money from them, or not.

Experian offers both the Free Credit Report and the Plus Credit Score in the same package, for $14.95; once payment is verified they make this package available to you instantly.

3 Bureau Credit Report and 3 PLUS Scores package

This is the product of choice to get all your credit information in one place. The report does not only list your Experian credit history, but also shows your TransUnion credit details and your Equifax credit details. In addition, the package contains the PLUS Credit score reports for each one of the three credit agencies, as well as useful information and explanation on how your credit score is determined. The price of the total package is $39.95, and users are granted access to this information immediately after payment has been made and verified.