Monitoring Service Credit Report Key

Equifax Credit Report Key

This key is designed to help you read your Equifax Consumer Credit Report, either online or on paper. Keep it handy when you view/download your report. This is the same credit report that credit grantors and lenders receive when they access your report from Equifax.

In an effort to help you understand your credit report even better, we have also created a more indepth, easy-to-use graphic credit report key in PDF format.

To open the graphic key, click here. You must have Acrobat Reader to open this page. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you may download it now for free by clicking here.

Identification
Information in this section includes: The subject and spouse name, current address, telephone numbers, origin and date added to file, former address, second former address, AKA (also known as), birth date, SSN (Social Security number) of subject, and SSN verified-yes or no.

Consumer Referral Message
This is the address and phone number of the Reporting Bureau. It is provided to assist you if you need to contact the bureau.

Employment
Information concerning employment includes: ES (Employment Subject), position, firm, location, date employed, date verified, EF (Employment Former), position, firm, location, date left, and E2 (Employment Second Former).

Summary of File's Items
This section provides you with a summary of some of the key information on your credit report. In order of appearance, left to right, they are:

Oldest opening date of trade
Newest reporting date of trade
PR/OI- Public records or other information
COLL- Collection items
FB-Any information supplied by credit reporting companies not affiliated with Equifax
ACCTS-How many trade lines
HC-HIGH CREDIT- Range of lowest to highest credit limits
File Codes: (see Trades section for explanations of code numbers.)
HIST DEL (Historical Delinquency)- Reflects the number of tradelines with the highest delinquency rating in either the Max/Del or 24 month history.

Inquiry Alert
This alert appears if three or more inquiries occurred in the past 90 days.

Public Records and Other Information
Public record information includes:

BKRPT (Bankruptcy)- date filed, court number, case number, liabilities, assets, exempt amount, filer, type, intent, and chapter number.
ST JD (Satisfied Judgment)- date filed, court number, amount, defendant, case number, plaintiff, date verified, status, and date satisfied.

Collection Items
This section includes any information on collection accounts you may have, such as:

LIST- Date assigned to collection agency
RPTD- Date reported
AMT- Total amount of collection
BAL- Balance as of date reported
DLA- Date of last activity (payment to client)
ECOA- Equal Credit Opportunity Act designator (please see code chart below)
AGENCY- Collection agency member number (an ID used by the credit bureau)
CLIENT- Credit grantor the agency represents
STATUS- Last activity reported
SERIAL- Account serial number

Trades
The trades section lists the lines of credit you have with different credit grantors and lenders who report their accounts payable to Equifax. Each listing contains information about one specific account, and this information is provided to Equifax by the credit grantor or lender (referred to as the "firm" on the report). Trade accounts are also grouped by their type: revolving, open, and installment. Within each group, the accounts are sorted by the most recent date reported. Totals for each group (including limit, high credit, balance, past due and terms) are given at the end of each group's listing. Each listing may include some or all of the following information. Trade lines are listed in two lines, which should be read from left to right.

In the first line you may find:

FIRM/IDENT CODE- Firm name and identifying code
CS- The current status of the account, which is represented by both a coded letter and a coded number. The letter R indicates a Revolving Account, the letter O an Open Account (30, 60, or 90 days), and the letter I an Installment Account.

The key for the coded numbers is as follows :

Code	Description
0	Too new to rate; approved but not used.
1	Paid as agreed; satisfactory; current
2	Pays 31-60 days; not more than 2 payments past due
3	Pays 61-90 days; not more than 3 payments past due
4	Pays 91-120 days; not more than 4 payments past due
5	Pays over 120 days; not more than 5 or more payments past due
7	Making regular payments or paid under wage earner plan or similar arrangements
8	Repossession
9	Charged off to bad debt

RPTD- Date account was reported
LIMIT- Credit limit
HICR- High Credit Limit or Terms
BAL $-Balance owed as of reporting date
DLA- Date of last activity
MR- Months reviewed
(30 60 90+)- Number of times the account was 30, 60 or 90+ days late
MAX/DEL- Most recent, highest delinquency before the 24 month history

In the second line you may find:

ECOA/ACCOUNT NUMBER- Equal Credit Opportunity Act designator, which indicates your relationship to the account, followed by the account number. ECOA codes include:

U	Undesignated
I	Individual
A	Authorized user
J	Joint
C	Co-maker
B	On Behalf of
M	Maker
T	Association with account terminated
S	Shared

OPND- Date the account was opened
P/DUE- Past due amount as of reporting date
TERM- The monthly repayment amount or number of months or years
24 MONTH HISTORY- The rate history for 24 months prior to the current status is read left to right. The slash (/) separates two 12 month periods.

Other
Accounts not reflecting rating type (revolving, open, or installments, for example).

Inquiries
Inquiries tell you which credit grantors or lenders have reviewed your credit report during their credit-granting process. This section shows you that your credit report was accessed by a creditor, such as a bank, department store, employer, property owner, etc. Each inquiry may include some or all of the following information: creditor's name, the identifying number, and the date the inquiry was made. Two years inquiry history is shown.

Consumer Statements
This section includes any statements that have been formally added by you (the consumer) to your credit file. To see a sample Equifax Credit Report, please click here.