Your credit report contains important information about your financial history and ultimately paints a picture of your financial habits, both good and bad. Unfortunately, this makes it vulnerable to potential errors that can negatively affect you. A poor or inaccurate credit report can make it difficult to borrow money, qualify for a loan, get a job or a security clearance, or even secure housing; this can happen due to fraud, but it can also result from errors made by creditors or by the credit reporting agencies. To protect your financial identity and prevent credit report errors, it’s important to review your personal information often.
Credit Report Errors – Where Do They Come From?
A credit report error refers to when mistakes are made by a lender or creditor reporting to a nationwide credit bureau or when an identity thief has successfully made fraudulent transactions in your name. Sometimes, errors can happen if you have a similar social security number, birth date, or address as another person. It appears on your credit report when this happens and results in negative consequences.
If left unchecked, a negative credit report can result in the following challenges:
- Wrongful lawsuits
- Housing difficulties
- Increased interest rates
- Problems at work
- Inability to receive loans
Reviewing Your Credit Report
To prevent errors before they happen, it’s important to check your credit report regularly. Even if you’ve made positive financial choices, credit report errors can majorly upend your life. When observing your credit report for inconsistencies, you should be aware of any negative entries that appear on your account. And, if you notice a credit bureau has made a mistake, you need to report the error immediately.
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Correcting Mistakes
If you notice any errors on your credit report, it’s important to report them immediately; thankfully, all credit bureaus have to correct mistakes for free. Contact the credit bureau and business that submitted the false report to correct it. From there, declare that you’d like to dispute inaccurate information on your credit report.
Disputing Errors on a Credit Report
The procedure for correcting credit report errors is no small task. Victims of credit report errors must contact every credit bureau that potentially made the error. They should also submit a written letter stating the incorrect information. Unfortunately, there are many roadblocks to run into, and many people who find themselves dealing with credit bureaus and creditors need assistance disputing credit errors. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the federal statute that governs how report disputes are made and resolved, and the fact is that this statute has many traps for the unwary. If you don’t dispute the errors properly as spelled out in the statute, you may not get the errors corrected.
Credit Report Lawyer
If you know of inaccurate information that isn’t being addressed by the contacted credit bureau, a credit report lawyer and identity theft lawyer can help you. The Fair Credit Reporting Act protects you and defines your rights for action upon violation of those liberties. At Holland Law firm, we know how to help, and we are experienced in suing credit reporting agencies to make them fix the errors and compensate our clients for the stress and the mess caused by the errors. Call us today and let us help you with your credit report dispute.