How do I read my credit report?
Every credit report has the same core sections: personal information, account history (your tradelines), collections, public records, and inquiries. Errors can hide in any of them, and the FTC found that 1 in 5 credit reports contain errors. Knowing the sections makes reviewing CreditRefresh's drafted letters easier, because you'll recognize what each letter points at.
Personal information
Your name and its variations, current and past addresses, date of birth, and employers. No account data lives here, but errors do: a misspelled name, an address you've never lived at, or an unfamiliar employer can mean your file is mixed with someone else's, or worse, that someone opened credit using your identity. This section is worth reading closely even though it doesn't affect your score.
Account history (tradelines)
The heart of the report. Every credit card, loan, and mortgage appears as a tradeline showing the creditor, the account status (open, closed, charged off), the balance, the credit limit or original loan amount, and a month-by-month payment history.
Check each tradeline against reality: Is the account actually yours? Is the balance right? Is every late mark real, and dated correctly? Is a closed account showing as open, or a paid account showing a balance? These are the most common and most consequential errors on real reports.
Collections
Accounts sold or assigned to collection agencies. Look for collections that were paid but still show a balance, the same debt listed under two different agency names, amounts that don't match the original debt, and anything older than the reporting window. Most negative items can stay for 7 years from the date of first delinquency.
Public records
Today this section is mostly bankruptcies. Chapter 7 bankruptcies can remain for 10 years. If a bankruptcy is listed that was dismissed rather than discharged, or one that isn't yours, that's disputable.
Inquiries
Hard inquiries are applications for credit and are visible to lenders; soft inquiries (checking your own credit, pre-approvals, employer checks) are visible only to you. A hard inquiry from a lender you never applied to is a red flag worth disputing, and sometimes an early sign of identity theft.
You don't have to catch everything yourself
CreditRefresh's AI scans every line item on all three reports against these same questions automatically. According to the Federal Trade Commission, 1 in 5 credit reports contain errors, and the errors rarely announce themselves. Knowing the sections means that when a drafted letter lands in your dashboard, you'll know exactly what it's pointing at and can judge it with confidence.
Related articles
You can dispute any item on your credit report that's inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, or unverifiable — including wrong balances, payments marked late incorrectly, accounts that aren't yours, items past the 7-year window, and reporting that violates the FCRA. You cannot dispute debts you legitimately owe and that are reported accurately. CreditRefresh won't generate letters without grounds.
A soft pull is a credit check that doesn't affect your score and isn't visible to other lenders — covering things like checking your own credit, pre-approval offers, and the pulls CreditRefresh runs on your reports. A hard pull is a credit check tied to a credit application that does affect your score, usually by a small amount, and stays visible to lenders for two years.
At minimum, once a year per bureau — and right now you can pull free reports weekly from all three bureaus at annualcreditreport.com. Annual review catches errors before they hit major applications. Step up to monthly during active dispute work, and every two weeks after identity theft. CreditRefresh also pulls automatically.
The standard FICO credit score is built from five factors: payment history (35%), credit utilization (30%), length of credit history (15%), credit mix (10%), and new credit (10%). Payment history and utilization together account for two-thirds of the score, which is why disputing inaccurate late payments and incorrect balances tends to move scores the most.