Credit Reports: Your Payment History

When you are looking at your credit report, your payment history is one of the most important parts of your credit history. Here are a few things to consider about the payment history section of your credit report.

Payment History

Your payment history is perhaps the most important part of your credit report. If you want to get approved for a loan with a reasonable interest rate, you are going to need to have a good payment history on your credit report. It is important that you get a copy of your credit report every so often just to make sure that all of your accounts are showing a good payment history. If your payment history is suffering, you will want to take the necessary steps to get it under control.

Payment History Section

A good portion of your credit report is going to be dedicated to your payment history. In this section, is going to be a listing of all of the different accounts that you have. These accounts are going to specify whether you have been up-to-date on your payments. Creditors will look at this section when they are terming whether they should give you a loan or not. You want all of the accounts that you have to say that you are up-to-date on your payment history.

Numeric Statuses

If you are late on some of your payments, you are going to notice some numeric statuses out to the side of your accounts. These numeric statuses are like notes that are left by the creditor on your credit report. For example, you might see something that says "30 day past," "60 day past," or "90 day past." This means that you are either 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days late on your payment. Even having one 30 day late payment can be very bad for your credit. If you have any that are 90 days or beyond, this is going to reflect a very negatively on you.

Narrative Codes

In this section, you are also going to see narrative codes throughout. Narrative codes are another type of note that are left on your credit report. These are like small descriptions that explain what type of account you have. Next to each one of your accounts, you should have a narrative code. This narrative code is going to say something like "real estate mortgage" or "credit card." In many cases, these codes are not going to have any impact on your credit score because they are simply stating what type of account you have. However, there are some situations in which a narrative code could be negative. For example, a narrative code could say "charge off," "repossession," or "account included in bankruptcy." If you see any negative statements like this on your payment history section, it is not going to look good to potential creditors. When you look at your credit report, you should be on the lookout for any of these narrative codes that are not correct.