Each of the three credit reporting agencies (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) are entitled by law to give you a free credit report every year. Therefore, you are allowed to get three free credit reports every year. You can either choose to get these all at the same time or get them at different time periods, which may be desired if you want to regularly be able to check your credit situation at a particular period of time.

There are a lot of different things located on your Equifax credit report. With all the different things located on it, knowing how to read the credit report is essential so you don't mistake anything. This article is dedicated to helping you understand how to read Equifax credit reports.

First off, they display your personal information. This includes your full name, your Social Security Number (SSN), your date of birth, any former names you had if you got your name changed legally, current address, previous addresses, employment status, and much more. All of your personal information is very easy to read and you should just make sure that everything matches up correctly and they have no errors within your personal information field. Within this area you can also view any fraud alerts that were made against your credit report.

Next is the account information section which gives full detail of any accounts which you have. It will provide in depth information like the account type, account number, the date is was opened, the balance in the account, money which was owed to it in the past, outstanding money which is owed, and much more. This stuff is also pretty straight forward.

Afterwards, there is the inquiry section. Inquiries placed towards your will be posted inside of this general area. This section is split into two different subcategories. They are as follows:
1. Inquiries which show the companies and how they can affect your credit score
2. Inquiries which do not show the companies and don't affect your credit score

Inquiries which show the companies and affect your credit score are applied onto your credit file from potential lenders. They are figuring out whether to loan you a certain amount of money or not. Your credit score is affected only a little from this occurance and this issue shouldn't be a big problem. You will be able to see the name of the company which requested your credit information and the date which they requested it as well.

Inquiries from companies which don't show their names and don't affect your credit score are different from the other type. They don't affect your credit score and they inquire about credit which you were approved for in the past, insurance, or a review of your credit accounts from creditors which you are currently using. The company's name, date of requesting, and the specific type of inquiry will all be listed in this section.

This is just some of the basics of how you read your Equifax credit report, there are still other things which you will need to comprehend so you have no problems with understanding the information.