Your credit report is a vital piece of information that represents your payment habits, as well how well you manage your financial affairs. It is as important criteria for companies to determine your ability to manage money and payments.
Why Fix Your Credit Report?
If you have a bad credit report, it will be a problem for you to obtain credit. Your credit report can also affect your employment. There are chances that a bad report may reduce your possibilities of getting a good job, because many employer can and will access your credit history - and if it is bad, it you may not get the job.
Reasons For Errors In Your Credit Report:
It is very important to keep clean credit report. If you feel that your credit report has errors, you need to fix them. Usually, these errors occur due to the non-payment of bills that you never received. For instance, if you moved to some other locality, and the electricity company did not send you the final bill before you moved, you may have errors on your credit report for not paying the bill. Also, believe it or not, creditors do make mistakes – such as mistakenly posting a payment to someone else’s account, or failing to report a payment made on time. Although these kinds of errors are not your fault, you do need to keep an eye out for them, and get them fixed before they become a problem.
How To Fix Credit Report Errors
According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, fixing errors, or any form of inaccuracies in the credit report of an individual, is the sole responsibility of the credit bureau, consumer, and the company that provides the information. Fixing the errors on your credit report can be tricky and may take some time, depending on what’s involved.
The first thing you need to do is to order a copy of your credit report from the credit bureau. You need to go through it carefully and check if there are any mistakes in your accounts, and public or personal information. If you find a mistake, you need to inform the credit bureau in writing (DO NOT discuss your report on the phone!), stating the error that is in your credit report. Do not forget to ask for an acknowledgement receipt. Once the complaint has been made, the credit bureau will carry out an investigation to attempt to verify the disputed item with the creditor in question. The credit bureau submits the investigation report within thirty days, and if there is indeed an error, or the creditor cannot or does not verify the disputed item, they are required by law to delete the entry.
You can also attempt to fix simple errors on your own. Once you have tracked down a mistake in your credit report, you can contact the creditors and talk with them. If they agree that they have made an error, and agree to correct it then you need to get it in writing on the letterhead of the creditor – take the letter from the creditor that acknowledges the error to the credit bureau. If the problem is resolved, then your credit report will be fixed. You can also use the help of credit rescorers, because they act as a connection between the credit bureau and the lender, so that the process of fixing errors is executed quickly.
In the course of getting your credit report fixed, always remember to keep a record of the communication that takes place between you and the credit bureau, or creditors. It is important not to forget to get a receipt of the acknowledgement of any errors in your credit report.
Return to credit monitoring articles.
RSS FEED