Decoding Credit:  How to read and make sense of a credit report Credit is a pervasive part of our lives.  Credit is also complicated.  You may never have applied for a loan, or tried to buy a house, but many of the actions you take in your everyday life are constantly being compiled to make up your credit history, and a credit score being applied against it.  Most people in the US don’t understand the black box of how creditworthiness is determined, or how scores are calculated, but the first step to understanding your own credit is to get hold of your credit report from one of the three major US credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. 

Credit bureaus seem to know everything about you, but where does all that credit data come from? When you first read your credit report (see also How To Read a Credit Report), it may seem like the credit bureaus know everything there is to know about you.  Your personal data, account information, employment history… It’s all there – which might lead you to wonder, where does this data come from?