---
title: "What is Credit report? | Benefit Systems"
description: "A credit report is the collection of reported credit accounts held on a person by a bureau, with limit, balance, payment status and the inquiries other lenders made."
source: "aus dem gebauten HTML abgeleitet"
---
# What is Credit report?

A credit report is the collection of reported credit accounts held on a person by a bureau, with limit, balance, payment status and the inquiries other lenders made.

Also called: Credit file.

## How it works #

A credit report is built from the monthly reports lenders send to a bureau. It holds account type, date opened, credit limit, the balance on the statement date, payment status and the list of inquiries. Income and assets are not in it. Because each bureau receives its own reports, several reports on the same person can differ without anything being wrong.

## Not to be confused with #

A credit report is not a score: the report holds the data, the score is a calculation applied to part of that data.

## In German #

The German term is Kreditbericht. [German version of this term](/de/glossar/kreditbericht)

## Related terms #

- [Credit bureau](/en/glossary/credit-bureau): A credit bureau is a company that collects reports from lenders, matches them to a person and passes them on as a credit report when a lender asks.
- [Credit score](/en/glossary/credit-score): A credit score is a number a bureau uses to express how likely a person is to meet their payment obligations.
- [Hard pull](/en/glossary/hard-pull): A hard pull is a check of a credit file made because a lending decision is pending. It is recorded, visible to other lenders and counts towards the score.

## Articles that use this term #

- [how-us-credit-reports-work](/en/knowledge/how-us-credit-reports-work)
- [fico-vs-vantagescore](/en/knowledge/fico-vs-vantagescore)
- [credit-utilization](/en/knowledge/credit-utilization)
- [Does applying for a credit card hurt your credit score?](/en/knowledge/credit-card-application-score)
- [hard-pull-vs-soft-pull](/en/knowledge/hard-pull-vs-soft-pull)
- [When is an authorized user card worth it?](/en/knowledge/authorized-users)