U.S. Mortgage Index

Credit report

Definition

A credit report is a record of a person’s credit accounts, balances, and payment history. Mortgage underwriting commonly reviews one or more reports along with a credit score.

In plain English

A credit score summarizes risk with a number. A credit report is the underlying file: accounts, payment patterns, and related items the score draws on. Lenders order reports as part of underwriting. This page does not describe how to “fix” a file or name a scoring model as the only model.

Technical definition

Consumer glossaries distinguish the report from the score. FICO and other model names are not synonyms of this concept.

Why it matters

Preapproval, underwriting, and pricing conversations refer to the report as evidence, not as the score itself.

Sources reviewed