What's different?
Here's what I would look out for within an OC TL:
1) DOFD - if the TL shows a date newer than the actual DOFD in your own records then it would mean that the baddie would report longer than it is supposed to.
2) Balance and CL - It's normal for the balances to be off on all 3 because all 3 CRAs won't update on the exact same day. However, on some occasions a TL will stop reporting entirely and that can result in the same balance being reports for months or even years. This can impact utilization in the short term (FICO will start ignoring it for util purposes after a year or so of non-updating) and impact the way lenders see your credit.
3) Late placement - It's not uncommon to have lates be off by a month or so, or have one CRA report no lates and the other two report them. Some lates are removed early, sometimes by the CRA themselves. But if you have lates showing in months/next to months that you were never ever late, then that can be an issue for your credit.
4) Comments - some comments in the comments section are scored by FICO. You'd want to make sure they are accurate.
5) Open Dates - This is the date the TL was opened. Two of the three CRAs will always report the open date for the first of that month. The third CRA (EQ?) will show the actual open date. These will always vary across the CRAs. Not related to CAs, but their open dates will always differ from OCs' open dates.
Things on OC TLs to not be so concerned about:
1) DOLA - Date of Last Activity will on ocassion vary across the 3 CRAs. Almost anything can trigger a change in the DOLA like a payment, a dispute, or even a random update of the TL by the CRA. YMMV on whether or not FICO cares about the update.
2) Status or Reported date - same as DOLA.
3) DOFMD - Date of First Major Delinquency is a coined term by the CRA and the calcualtion of the date varies across the 3 CRAs. It will differ (I think only 2 of the 3 CRAs show this date if I am not mistaken). FICO ignores that field as do lenders. They'll look at the late placement.
4) Status - stati are based on your late placement so that could vary in some situations.
5) Account type - account types (e.g. revolving, charge, installment, mortgage, etc.) are important, but sometimes you'll see comments like "Account type: Open" or something similar. Some folks assume that the account is open (as in not closed). It just means "open-ended". I mention this because not all CRAs will show that and it will vary across all 3.
The above are some major ones I see other posters concerned about. There are others not mentioned here, but you get the idea. Just word of caution, if a TL is truly misreporting, but misreporting in your favor, don't be too eager to get it fixed. Sometimes action to fix it could result in added lates, baddies, etc. Also if it is misreporting in your favor or not, make the assumption that corrective action might include a TL deletion. That might sound good but if the TL is old you could lose points vs. gain. I saw a recent post and the poster disputed a closed loan to get them to update an incorrectly reporting balance. The TL disappeared instead and resulted in a significant score drop.
The above are for OCs only. My list would greatly differ for CAs.
