How to get your free credit history check

(c) Copyright 2006 by Timothy Thriftwood

This may come as a surprise, but a free credit history check is included in any reputable credit report check. Many people use the terms interchangeably, but a free credit history check is actually referring to the history section of any free credit report that you've pulled.

Actually, to be perfectly fair about it, there are different kinds of credit reports. The one that you would be sent from the three credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) all have a history section included. When you actually pay money to one of those online 'free credit report' places, not only do you get ripped off for having to pay in the first place, but you'll find that their reports don't follow the same format as the official ones, and some leave out all traces of your history and just give the derogatories with no respect to the date that they occurred!

A free credit history section (from a credit bureau) has a lot to it, in fact. It shows all the accounts, open, closed, and revolving that have occurred in the last seven years. Then, it shows month-by-month values for how many payments were late or paid on time during the whole duration of each account. Finally, it goes into detail about the amount owed for each amount, and how large the monthly payments are. This is the part, in my experience, out of the entire credit report that lenders scrutinize over the most.

There are some items that go back further than seven years. Particularly bankruptcy judgments, and in most states any kind of tax or property lien will stick to your history report for a whole decade. In fact, anything government or tax related is very likely to stick to you for much longer and ruin the rest of your financial life, so be sure to pay those off first and foremost to avoid the worst kind of credit problems.

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