%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %% N.I.A. %% %% Network Information Access %% %% 28DEC89 %% %% Guardian Of Time %% %% File #6 %% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% :_TRW -- Credit Bureau -- How To Read A TRW Credit Report :_Written/Typed In By: Guardian Of Time :_December 28, 1989 INTRODUCTION: Why would I want to read a Credit Report? Well for starters everything in concerning your financial transactions are concerned w/ it, concerning topics like getting a loan, to get a credit card, to get a house, etc, and etc. Most if NOT all Credit Unions ( I work for one so I know ), go by your credit report, some won't even let you open an account w/out first running a credit report. Why? Well based on your previous/current credit report we know if you been paying your bills, how late you are, if you been sent after by the Repo Man and all sorts of stuff. I will go into detail, as simple as I can, so that you can understand everything you need to KNOW ABOUT CREDIT REPORTS. LAW: If you have something on your credit report ( note the word SOMETHING ), say like Mastercard, and you paid your bill in full, yet they reported you as being 30 days delinquent or late. You can request from the either Mastercard or if your Mastercard is through a Credit Union/Bank that the Mastercard reporting is wrong and you wish it to be resolved. You show them your check stub, and the Credit Union/bank believes you, they BY LAW MUST CLEAR IT UP W/IN 30 DAYS, if they DON'T that ENTIRE REPORTING MUST BE DROPPED. Meaning if you requested something be resolved and the Credit Union/Bank doesn't, you can have it erased off your history, and its as if you never had it!! Note: This will not work if you DON'T HAVE CREDIT and you walk into your bank and request a credit report and say hey "I don't have credit whY?" its not that simple. One thing is you can't request a credit report you have to do that elsewhere. Also if you are TURNED DOWN BY A CREDIT UNION/BANK you can DEMAND to see the Credit REort if they don't give it to you, sue, you will win, and if they turned you down because of your credit reporting, and there is an error they to must clear up the matter w/in 30 days. You can call up the credit bureau and just ask for a credit report. Not that simple, you have to go through your bank. The law is FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT 615 and REGULATION B, THE EQUAL CREDIT OPPORTUNITY ACT REGULATION, 202.9(A). The law above simply means that if you are turned down because of your credit you are entitiled to know WHY. You are also ENTITLED to KNOW from WHAT credit bureau that they pulled your credit report from. The Federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibits creditors from discriminating against credit applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, marital status, age ( provided that the applicant has the capacity to enter into a binding contract); because all or part of the applicant's income derives from any public assistance program; or because the applicant has in good faith exercised any right under the Consumer Credit Credit Protection Act. --------- The actual report is to indepth to show you but I'll describe what you'll see. 1. name and address as recorded on automated subscriber tapes, included date of most recent update. 8-88 John Q Consumer 16055 Birch St Burbank Ca 91502 -- This means simply is YOUR Name/Address, and when the tape was last sent in, this is very important, since say you HAD a loan and paid off in say December 1985, the date last reported was October 1985, you could possibly be denied a loan simply because the people you deal w/ is NOT Updating their records monthly, this is quite simple to fix, you simple request a copy of your credit report from the Credit Bureau, and then check the date last reported column, simple! and if its NOT been reported simply contact those people, like Mastercard, GMAC financing, Visa, etc, note of WARNING, Finance places are NOTORIOUS FOR NOT UPDATING THEIR RECORDS. Again same principle if they are not fixed w/ in 30 days, that TRADE LINE ( henceforth ), will be Deleted. 2. Employment name/address as reported by a subscriber through an inquiry on the date shown. 4-88 Ajax Hardware 2035 Broadway Los Angeles Ca 90019 -- This shows your CURRENT job, sometimes this is not updated properly, this is basicaly a free form field every time you request one, you check your job on a loan application or something like that, this keeps tabs on your current job, and if say you get fired from one job you hate, just keep putting down the job you like on everything! hehehee, but if your not working there now, that defeats the purpose. But it will be updated by Whatever job you put in. 3. A Code designating the TRW or Credit Bureau office nearest the consumer's current acddress, for your use in consumer referals. CONSUMER - TCA1 -- You must contact the Bureau and ask what the hell TCA1 means to YOU, for that to be the closest place to you, its a code see? and just say that the report is TCA1, where is the closest place that I can visit. That number will be different around the state. 4. Consumer's Social Security Number SS# - 111111111 5. Three Columns indicating positive, nonevaluated, and negative status comments. ACCOUNT PROFILE --------------- |POS|NON| NEG | Don't you just hate Text Graphics? --------------- -- Ok, had to look around for these, took me a while to figure what the hell they where talking about, but this is what they mean. Positive - Good Standing w/ the Credit Bureau Negative - BAD Status w/ the Credit Bureau Non-Evaluated - Special Comments that is reported. There are special codes that go into each of these colums. These colums are for a quick glance to tell you that you the consumer are in good standing w/ your credit. The Non-Evaluated is a little confusing, I'm under the impression that its for special cases, like court judgements and such, but then I could be way off, the example I'm looking at doesn't seem to refer to much on the NONEVALUATED STATUS. They are also a few codes that make it Public Status, that seems to be what the Nonevaluated status is most ly for. 6. A(Automated) M(Instant Update or Manual Form) indicate the method by which the credit grantor reports information to TRW A or M -- These go in the above #5's colums 1 per Trade Line. 7. Name and Number of reporting subscriber MOUNTAIN BANK - 1139999 -- This is what institution is reporting you, the number is how the Credit Bureau can easily track down eactly where Mountain Bank is, for Contact purposes and such. Very handy to know. That number can give you the exact name/number/address of what bank that is. Again I believe the Bureau can tell you this, but I'm not sure. Also that line is also called a TRADE LINE by some other credit bureaus, each line is a TRade Line. The number means this (1139999) the FRIST # (1)139999 means that it is a BANK, the SECOND # 1(1)39999 means that it is a BANK, all Banks are a #1. List below: 0 - Public Record/Associations 1 - Bank 2 - Bank Credit Card 3 - Retail 4 - Credit Card 5 - Loan Finance 6 - Sales Finance 7 - Credit Union 8 - Savings & Loan 9 - Service & Professional The last digits I'm not aware of at this time ( 28DEC89) 8. Association code describing the legal relationship to the account. 2 -- This tells you the status of the account list below: 0 -- Undesignated : REported by TRW information services only 1 -- Individual : This is the only person associated w/ the account 2 -- Joint Account : This individual is expressly obligated to repay Contractual all debts arising on this account by reason of having signed an agreement to that effect. 3 -- Authorized : This individual has use of this joint account for which another individual has contractual responsibility ( your not responisble for the bills!! ) 4 -- Joint Account : This individual participates in this account. 5 -- Co-Maker : This individual has guaranteed this account and assumes responsiblity should maker default. 6 -- On Behalf of : This individual has signed an application for the purpose of securing credit for another individual other than spouse. 7 -- Maker : This individual is responsible for this account, which is guaranteed by a co-maker. 9. Account or Docket # 3562401973 -- This # here is extremely important!! This number represents your loan number or a CREDIT CARD NUMBER. This is why only banks and the credit bureau are allowed to see this and not your every day joe blow, because this shows your credit card, balance, name/address, everything!! 10. Status comment reflecting the payment condition of the account as of the status date. 9-88 -- In english this simply means the DATE REPORTED. If the date is realy old, then you should request that that particular trade line be updated. 11. Date the account was opened. 12-87 12. Scheduled monthly payment amount. SCH MONTH PAY $132 -- This means that the person must pay $132.00 per month or he will become delinquent and or a bad debt. 13. Estimated monthly payment amount. EST MONTH PAY $44. -- They don't realy have a firm payment set forth or the person is just paying as much as he can afford. 14. Date last payment was made. LASTPAY 8-88 -- Means the last payment the Credit Union/bank received money from you. 15. Type and Terms of the account. CHG -- REV -- This means the type of an account Checking, Revolving, Loan, etc, etc, and the description, most if not all checking accounts and or Charge Accounts are Revolving. 16. The original loan amount ( ORIGL ), credit limit ( LIMIT ), historicial high balance ( HIBAL ), or original amount charged to loss ( C/OAM), represented in dollar amounts. ORIGL -- $2200 -- This realy is quite easy, it realy just says that if its a loan its the Original loan amount, and how much he has paid, LIMIT, simply means the Hi-Credit, like acredit card, has a maximum of say $200 balance, that would be the LIMIT, HIBAL, the historical high balance, realy nifty good for late loans, or a guy thats scipped. C/OAM, is if the account was charged off it shows how much money was lost. 17. Balance owing, balance date, and amount past due, if applicable. $1400 -- 9-17-88 -- $425 -- This is basicaly quite self explanatory, the Balance being owed, the Balance date and how much past due! 18. The applicants payment history during the past 24 months the code reflects the status of the account for each month, displayed for balance reporting subscribers only. C -- CURRENT N -- ZERO BALANCE REPORTED/CURRENT ACCOUNT 1 -- 30 DAYS PAST DUE 2 -- 60 DAYS PAST DUE 3 -- 90 DAYS PAST DUE 4 -- 120 DAYS PAST DUE 5 -- 150 DAYS PAST DUE 6 -- 180 DAYS PAST DUE - -- Dash -- No History Reported for that month -- Blank - No history maintained; see status comment. 321CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC -- This is the important section, you see? this means that they will glance at this section of the report if your current and are all paid up, you have either a bunch of C's or a bunch of N's, the above table is in order from GREAT to WORST, the lower you go down the table, the worse your reporting is. People that are lazy, just pull the report and glance briefly at this column, on the report its located on the far right-hand side. Obviously if you havn't paid a bill w/-in 180 days that does NOT reflect very kindly on your status to get money!! So the C's or N's are the best, 1 and 2 are Ok, by our Credit Union Standards but not the rest, tisk tisk, clear up your history and you'll be ok!! 19. Inquiries indicate a request for the applicant's credit information Inquiring subscriber; date of inquiry; and type; terms and amount if available. HILLSIDE BANK -- INQUIRY 11-18-87 AUT 48 - 6300 -- This is the trade line again, it shows the banks name, and if it has a credit card, well it shows the card number, and the inquirys show up as to whom it was that wanted to view your history. 20. Public REcord: Court name, court code, docket number, type of public record, filing date, amount, and judgment creditor. This information may include bankruptcies, liens, and/or judgments against the applicant. CO SPR CT SANTA ANA -- 30149999 -- JUDGMENT -- 10-19-86 -- $1200 07606865 aLLIED COMPANY -- This is very bad, its again the trade line, but noticed the word Judgment, that is horrible on a credit report, it will list who you got the $$$ from and who the copmay is that you where charged off by, some people send their collections to a compay and they do the actual work. The trade line again shows the Credit Union/Bank, Your loan, credit card #, and how much you owe and such, also, some banks send thier collections to another office which is in another state, like Allied Company in the above transaction... 21. Profile report messages alert the subscriber about a credit applicants social security number, name, address, generation, or year fo birth. CHECKPOINT SS$ IS 054860338/OTHER FILE IDENT: MID INIT IS 0 1-86 JOHN Q CONSUMER 6613 SADDLEBACK ROAD ORANGE CA 92708 -- This just means that if your pulling a report on Jon Jones JR, you might have accidentaly pulled up Jon Jones Sr, so this is a quick warning to tell you that "HEY DUMMY THIS IS NOT FOR THIS PERSON CORRECT IMMEDIATELY!!" --------- The next section here is some common error messages that are reported on your credit report: CHECKPOIINT SS# NOT ISSUED AS OF 08/87 This Message appears on the profile report if the applicant's social security number has not been issued as of the date displayed in the message. In general, Check point messages alert you to pertinent information about specific applicant identifiers. When you see a Checkpoint Message, you may want to further investigae the information supplied by the applicant. CHECKPOINT AKA PRESENT ON FILE. MORE DATA MAY BE AVAILABLE UNDER AKA When this message appears on the Profile report, it indicates that there may be additional information under the name FOLLOWING the message. Another inquiry should be made. CHECKPOINT SS# IS 524479971 A Checkpoint Variation Message will appear when the information in TRW's file relating to the applicant's social security number, generation, or year of birth does not correspond to the informatioon entered in the subscriber's inquriy. It is possible that the information MAY NOT PERTAIN TO THE INDIVIDUAL INQUIRED UPON. CHECKPOINT *** AKA *** LASTNAME IS SMITH The AKA Serach enhancement is designed to automatically retrieve and dsiplay additional consumer data associated w/ alternative surnames - such as aliases, misspelled names and maiden or previous surnames -- that contain the same social security number and first name characters. It is possible that the information MAY NOT PERTAIN TO THE INDIVIDUAL INQUIRED UPON. CHECKPOINT *** NICKNAME SEARCH *** The Nickname Search enhancement includes a Nicname Table containing alternative first names which may be used by an individual. This Nickname Table is auotmatically referenced for each inquiry and searches w/ both the given name and the nickname to retrieve additional credit information on an individual. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE INFORMATION MAY NOT PERTAIN TO THE INDIVIDUAL INQUIRED UPON. FILE IDENT: MID INIT IS Q A file ident message will appear when information is not given on input, but exists on file. * CAUTION * THE ABOVE REPORT MAY CONTAIN ITEMS FOR OTHER MEMBERS OF THE SAME FAMILY This message may appear when names and addresses are similar. It means that closer checking of the application or w/ the applicant may be necessary. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE INFORMATION MAY NOT PERTAIN TO THE INDIVIDUAL INQURED UPON. **** AUTO-FILE_CONTAINS AUTOMATED SUBSCRIBER INFORMATION ONLY **** This message indicates geographic areas which, in general, contain data received from natinal companies. Local credit grantor and public reord information is not yet available. * CONSUMER STATEMENT * TRW Information Services will accommodate statements on the Profile report in accordance w/ the FAIR CREDIT REPORTING ACT and state reporting laws. --------- Thats it guys, to read a credit report its not that difficult, you just got to pay attention to the actual report and don't be afraid to ask questions!! The only stupid question is one not asked or one that is asked to a group that does not care to listen to you. Just some tibit facts about TRW, they are NATIONAL, which means that if you fuck up your credit in Texas, going to Washington and still using your real name and such, will not keep you hidden. We are in the age of Big Brother, and TRW is Big Brother, you can NOT hide from them. BUT there is something you should know, TRW is not solid, meaning, they have been sued several times by people ( you the consumer ), because of wrong credit information. Remember if there is something wrong w/ your credit and you don't report it, and you think you can just blow it off, don't get it corrected, that mistake will carry w/ you the rest of your adult life!! N.I.A. - Ignorance, There's No Excuse. Founded By: Guardian Of Time/Judge Dredd. [OTHER WORLD BBS]