Friday, September 6, 2013

How to Dispute an Error on your Credit Report


Reposted from www.learnvest.com

If you believe that you’re doing everything possible to improve your financial health, but your credit score still seems lower than it should be, your credit report may contain errors. Studies suggest that up to 25% of credit reports can contain serious errors, such as outdated personal information, mistaken or fraudulent accounts and incorrect account details.

Want those errors corrected? Well, it’s up to you to dispute them, so here’s a handy checklist on how to tackle potential credit report problems.
You’re entitled to receive one free credit report every 12 months from each of the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. If you’ve never examined your reports before, you can pull all three at AnnualCreditReport.com, which is the only government-approved site that provides reports for free. (We suggest that you only pull one every four months, so you can regularly check up on your credit throughout the year for free.) 


In some cases, you may not find the error on all three credit reports, so inspect each report carefully to find out if this is the case. You only need to dispute the error with the bureau(s) reporting the incorrect information.

In addition, if you have a credit line from a small company, such as a credit union, it’s important to keep in mind that it may not report to all three bureaus. Before you assume that a bureau is incorrectly reporting your credit line, check with your creditor to see which bureau it reports to.

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