Credit Report Errors
If you are a US citizen/resident, you need to check your credit report even if you do not suspect that someone has stolen your identity. I have been told that 1 in 4 credit people have errors on their credit reports. I have checked mine, and so far have found a total of five errors on my credit reports. While two of these errors were relatively harmless, three were serious enough that they could have prevented me from getting a loan or credit card.
Getting the errors corrected seems fairly easy, so far I have just had to contact the credit agencies and tell them what info was wrong and give the correct info. I assume they double check the info, and then they snail mail me a corrected report (at which point I find a new problem on it or another report and the process repeats...) Supposedly you are suppose to contact the creditor as well, but according to the creditor I did contact, that is only if they gave out the wrong information
You can get free copies of your credit reports once every twelve months from http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This website is part of the FACT act. You can get a copy from all three credit agencies at once, or you can get a single credit report at a time and spread them out through the year. Personally, I would suggest that the first time you get your credit report, get all three at once. I did not notice some of the errors in my credit reports until I sat down and compared credit reports.
They will ask you questions about your credit history to verify who you are (get out your files, account numbers, etc.) They ask some questions that can really throw you for a loop: do not get nervous, just read all the options and answer honestly. The worst that can happen is that you can’t get the report online and will have to get it through the mail. It can take several hours to get all three reports, mostly because you have to fill out the information for each credit agency and will probably glance through each report before getting the next. Make sure your computer is connected to a printer! You can retrieve the (archived) report for 30 days or so, but it is really more hassle than it is worth.
The credit agencies will also try and sell you your “credit score”. If you want to get your credit score, check out myfico.com before you buy a score from one of the agencies. Only one of the credit agencies actually offers you your FICO score, the others just look like FICO scores. If you decided to get your FICO score from myfico.com, get your free credit reports first and correct all mistakes. If you credit report has inaccuracies, myfico.com will not give you a revised FICO score once the problems have been fixed.
When you get your credit reports:
I feel like I am acting as an advertisement for this, but it is free (unless you get a credit score, which most people don't need, anyway), and it could save you trouble down the road.
Getting the errors corrected seems fairly easy, so far I have just had to contact the credit agencies and tell them what info was wrong and give the correct info. I assume they double check the info, and then they snail mail me a corrected report (at which point I find a new problem on it or another report and the process repeats...) Supposedly you are suppose to contact the creditor as well, but according to the creditor I did contact, that is only if they gave out the wrong information
You can get free copies of your credit reports once every twelve months from http://www.annualcreditreport.com. This website is part of the FACT act. You can get a copy from all three credit agencies at once, or you can get a single credit report at a time and spread them out through the year. Personally, I would suggest that the first time you get your credit report, get all three at once. I did not notice some of the errors in my credit reports until I sat down and compared credit reports.
They will ask you questions about your credit history to verify who you are (get out your files, account numbers, etc.) They ask some questions that can really throw you for a loop: do not get nervous, just read all the options and answer honestly. The worst that can happen is that you can’t get the report online and will have to get it through the mail. It can take several hours to get all three reports, mostly because you have to fill out the information for each credit agency and will probably glance through each report before getting the next. Make sure your computer is connected to a printer! You can retrieve the (archived) report for 30 days or so, but it is really more hassle than it is worth.
The credit agencies will also try and sell you your “credit score”. If you want to get your credit score, check out myfico.com before you buy a score from one of the agencies. Only one of the credit agencies actually offers you your FICO score, the others just look like FICO scores. If you decided to get your FICO score from myfico.com, get your free credit reports first and correct all mistakes. If you credit report has inaccuracies, myfico.com will not give you a revised FICO score once the problems have been fixed.
When you get your credit reports:
- Double check all account numbers-just because it looks like your account number from a glance does not mean it actually is your account number.
- Double check all addresses (current and previous)-see above.
- Check to make sure all accounts are up to date-this means checking both the month AND the year. (this one made me feel really stupid)
- Check to make sure all credit cards show an accurate credit limit-if the limit shown is lower than your real limit, it can hurt your credit score.
- Compare all three credit reports side by side-you would be surprised what this turns up.
- Check to see who has been looking at your credit report-all those pre-approved credit card offers? the companies that sent you those offers will be listed. (no errors to be found here, it is just interesting.)
I feel like I am acting as an advertisement for this, but it is free (unless you get a credit score, which most people don't need, anyway), and it could save you trouble down the road.