# How to read your credit report

> A credit bureau report runs to dozens of pages and most of them repeat. Here are the four places worth looking at.

People usually order a credit report before applying for a loan — to see what
the bank will see. The trouble is that the document is long, repetitive and
written in reporting language.

In Poland this is the BIK report; elsewhere the provider differs, but the
structure is much the same.

## 1. Open obligations and their total

Near the front you will find a list of open obligations: loans, cards,
overdrafts, instalment purchases. Each shows the amount outstanding and the
**monthly payment**.

The sum of those payments is the single most important number in the whole
document. It feeds the affordability calculation and decides whether the bank
thinks you can carry another obligation.

Check two things. First, that every entry is yours and current; closed loans
sometimes linger as open when the lender has not reported the closure. Second,
whether card and overdraft limits are actually in use. An unused card with a
20 000 limit still reduces your borrowing capacity, because it counts as
available debt.

## 2. Payment history

Each obligation carries a payment history, usually a grid of months marking
any delays. After the total of payments, this is the most important part.

The key distinction: a delay **under 30 days** is something most lenders
shrug at. A delay **over 90 days** is a signal that closes the door to credit
for years, even if the debt was later repaid in full.

History covers five years back. Anything older should no longer appear — and
if it does, it is worth reporting.

## 3. Credit enquiries

A separate section shows who checked your history and when. Every loan
application leaves a trace there.

Many enquiries in a short window looks bad: the lender reads it as applying in
several places at once, meaning either desperation or an intention to take on
several obligations together. If you are comparing offers, do it with
calculators rather than submitted applications.

Enquiries stay visible for twelve months.

## 4. Consent to processing after repayment

This section is easy to skip and is often the most consequential. Once an
obligation is repaid, the lender stops processing the data — unless you
consented to continued processing.

That sounds like something you would not want, but the opposite is often true:
**a well-repaid loan is your evidence of reliability**. Without that consent
the history disappears, and with it the argument that you return money on
time. Someone with no credit history at all can be a harder case for a lender
than someone with a good one.

## What the report does not contain

It holds no information about your income, spending, savings or assets. The
lender learns those elsewhere. The credit bureau answers exactly one question:
how has this person handled other people's money so far.

## Before you apply

Order a report **on yourself** a few weeks ahead. That gives you time for two
things: correcting errors, which happen more often than you might expect, and
closing unused limits that lower your capacity for no benefit at all.

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Źródło: https://ordiarion.com/blog/how-to-read-a-credit-report