Understanding credit reporting FAQs
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Frequently Asked Questions
Credit reports compile information from various lenders and other organizations. Reviewing credit reports helps lenders decide if they will loan money to you and what interest rates they will offer.
Credit reports contain:
- Personal information like your name, Social Security and driver’s license numbers, date of birth, current and previous addresses, and employers.
- Public information like tax liens, judgments, and bankruptcy filings, which is reported by the courts.
- Credit inquiries from parties who have accessed your credit report within the past two years.
- Credit history like the number and types of accounts you have, how much you owe to your lenders, and whether you have made payments on time. The credit bureaus get this type of information from banks, creditors, department stores, and other lenders.
If you are approved for a Customers Bank credit card, you will receive a link to your Credit Score Disclosure in your approval email. A Credit Score Disclosure will reflect your personal credit score and other information relating to a credit score.
FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) and Vantage scoring systems are two different scoring systems used to help lenders and others make decisions about customers’ creditworthiness faster and more objectively. There are 3 major credit reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax, and Transunion. Each agency reviews your financial history and compiles your credit report. A credit report is a complete history of your credit lines, loans, payments, and shows who has checked your score recently. Agencies use this full credit report to calculate and assign you a credit score, which is commonly referred to as your FICO or Vantage score. Credit scores range from 300 to 850.
Your scores will vary slightly between agencies, but any major differences may indicate an error or misconduct, so it is important to get in the habit of checking your credit score at each agency.
Additionally, your credit score may be different from the one reported by your credit monitoring service. The scores may be different because the credit monitoring company may be using different credit systems to determine the credit score. If you believe there are errors on your credit report, please contact the credit reporting agency that generated your report.
There are two kinds of inquiries (or sometimes referred to as “pulls”) that can occur on your credit report: “hard” inquiries and “soft” inquiries. While both types of credit inquiries enable a third party, such as you or a lender, to view the information in your credit report, only hard inquiries may impact your credit score.
Soft inquiry typically occurs when a person or company checks your credit report as part of a background check or to make an offer of credit. A soft inquiry may be recorded in your credit report, depending on the credit bureau, but it does not affect your credit score. A soft credit inquiry occurs when you initially request a rate based on your name, address, and date of birth to determine your rate and eligibility.
Hard inquiries generally occur when a financial institution, such as a lender or credit card issuer, checks your credit report when making a credit decision. Hard inquiries might lower your credit score and they may remain on your credit report for two years. With Customers Bank, a hard pull occurs after you accept a credit card offer and complete the online application.
Credit bureaus are required by law to remove negative information after 7 to 10 years. Visit the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ §
– for details.
We typically share credit card account information with credit bureaus once a month. A credit report will show the date we sent the updated information.
You can file a dispute with the credit bureaus or directly with a lender by calling Customer Service at (866) 405-0824 or emailing at [email protected]. If you dispute through the credit bureaus, they will let you know about anything that is updated. If you contact Customers Bank directly to dispute something on your Customers Bank account, we will investigate and respond to you when we have the facts.
You can get a free copy of your credit report once a year from each credit bureau shown above or at AnnualCreditReport.com.
We report information about your account and account status to Experian such as the date you opened the account, your credit limit, your account balance and your payment history; including whether or not you have made your payments on time and if your account is in collection.