Getting negative errors on your credit card can have a major negative effect on your credit score. This, in turn, could have a bad impact on your ability to get a good interest rate or credit ever. Therefore, it is highly essential to make sure that you are properly checking your credit report every year.
According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you must obtain a free copy of your report, provided by three credit bureaus, every year. With that being said, it is essential to ensure that you must obtain your reports from Annual Credit Reports, by either calling on their number 1-877-322-8228 or by visiting their website. There are a lot of scam sites over the internet that use the same web addresses and claim for a free credit report, but charge a hefty fee for providing the service.
Look out for these 5 repeated credit report mistakes that you can make:
- Incorrect information: At the time of signing up, make sure you are typing the right spelling of your name and adding the middle initial properly. If the spelling of your name is incorrect, the information on your report can match with other individuals who might have the same name. Other than that, review your employment, number, and Social Security number.
- Accounts registered as closed by the lenders: Upon closing a credit account, it is important to make sure that it is not registered as ‘closed by grantor’. This may show that the account was closed by the lender instead of you, and this directly affects your trustworthiness.
- Bad debts older than 7 years: If you have bad debts, your credit report company will remove it from your report. While bankruptcy will stay on your report, if you have ever filed for it, discharged debts must be removed.
- Duplicate accounts: In the case of more than one account being reported, it can portray that you have higher debt and more open credit.
- Debts from your ex-spouse: During a divorce, remember to take off your name from any joint accounts you have with your ex-partner. As well as, check your credit report personally to ensure there’s isn’t any new debt in your record added by your ex-partner.
How to fix error on a credit report:
While correcting errors in your credit report is a time-consuming task and demands patience, it is worth it in the end. How to take a mistake off of your credit report? Here are a few steps to help you out:
- Write to the credit report company yourself: while you have an option to dispute about your credit error through phone or online with all the bureaus, according to the experts, it is better to mail a certified letter to the bureau yourself. Which must contain your argument and documents for the times of need. The mail should explain your error in detail, have photocopies of any document that supports your claim, and request them to remove the error int he end. As well as, you can also add a photocopy of your credit report with the error highlighted. In the end, you must have a copy of the documents and your letter with yourself as well.
- Make contact with the source of the error: With sending a letter to your credit report company, write to the lender with the photocopies of supporting documents as well. To the one who reported the error, and request them to remove the error as well.
- Send one letter for every error: If you have more than one error in your report, every individual should be addressed in a separate letter. If your list of errors is long, our credit report company can mark it as frivolous and move on without taking any action on them.
Once you have made sure that your credit report is accurate, you have made a smart move in protecting your financial future and your credit rating.
