Your credit report is an important document. Not only do creditors use it to determine if they will give you a loan or not and how high your interest rate will be, your credit report can also help you determine if someone has stolen your identity. Therefore, you need to check your credit report periodically to make sure everything is accurate.
What should I look for on my credit report?
When looking at your credit report, there are several things you should look for. These include:
- Accounts that you did not open or authorize
- An inaccurate charge amount on an account
- An incorrect address
- Accounts that reflect past-due payments or other negative comments
What should I do if I find a mistake?
Statistically, the odds are in favor of you having a mistake on your credit report. In fact, approximately 70% of credit reports have an error in them. Therefore, you should expect to see a mistake. This is yet one more reason to check your credit report in an annual basis.
If you do find a mistake, no matter how small it is, you need to report it to the credit report agency immediately. Provide the agency with a detailed explanation of the mistake and include any supporting documents that you can.
After you report the error, the credit reporting agency must follow through on it with the creditor that supplied the information to them in the first place. If the creditor acknowledges that it is an error, the inaccurate information will be removed. Otherwise, it will remain on your report unless you can prove it is a mistake.
What if I still disagree with the information on my report?
If the reporting agency chooses to leave the information on your report and you still disagree with it, you can write a short statement to include on your report that describes your side of the situation. Legally, your statement must be included with your report.
Related Posts:
- Taking Steps to Maintain and Correct Your Credit Report - Checking your credit report on a regular basis is an important step in taking proper care of your finances. Just as a...
- Check Your Credit Report Once Annually - With this being a New Year, I wanted to remind everyone to check on their credit reports. Remember, you are entitled to...
- Checking Your Credit Report & Credit Score - Whether you are looking forward to getting a loan or not, you should routinely check your credit score to ensure there are...
- Don’t Be Fooled by Free Credit Report Tactics - Ugh! I just saw another one of those commercials on television that drive me so crazy. You know the ones, the commercials...