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Just a few short years ago, a law was enacted which said that you could get a copy of your credit history report free once per year. This was a great idea, and a lot of people took advantage of this. But still, the one thing that puzzles me is why more people are not taking advantage of this law?
I think the reason is because not everyone realizes that ones credit report contains more inaccurate data that you can shake a stick at. Who knows how many errors it contains, but chances are great that your report contains errors. This is due in large part to the massive amount of data that the credit agencies need to store for each and every consumer and business on the planet. This is compounded by the fact that one lenders reported to TransUnion last year and has changed contracts and is now reporting to Equifax this year.
So think about it all consumers and all businesses, past and present, times the number of open accounts that each of them currently has and has had during their lifetime. This amounts to several BILLION records that they need to keep track of. If only 1% of that data is in error, that still means that over a million records are wrong in their database. Now compare that to the studies that indicate that up to 30% of that data contains errors, and you can see why this is a huge problem.
One of the biggest problems of all is that YOU are in charge of ensuring that those errors get fixed. They do not fix themselves and the only way they will get corrected to reflect accurate information is if YOU initiate the dispute with the credit bureaus. You need to do this individually with each of the three major credit bureaus Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian. The reason for this is because their version of your credit report probably contains different errors!
Now the thing that results by having inaccurate data in your credit history profile in that your credit score is not calculated correctly. Your credit score, sometimes also known as a FICO score, is a number that the credit bureaus have come up with as a quick way to gauge your credit worthiness. Although your credit score may be higher than it should be based on these errors, chances are greater that your credit score is worse than it should be.
So how do you get the wrong information removed from your credit report? The first thing to do is get a copy of your credit report, and get a separate copy from each of the three credit bureaus. Then you start the pain-staking process of going through the report, line by line, and noting everything that is not accurate, and then you file a dispute form with that credit bureau.
After you have filed a dispute form with the credit bureau, they then have 30 days to either verify the information as being accurate, or deleting it from your credit report. The thing that makes that decision is whether or not the lender verifies the information as being accurate, or just plain does not respond. If this is an account that has been paid off for several years, even though you had some problems with the account early on, the lender may just not take the time to respond at all, in which case the data needs to be deleted.
Now there is the question of the stuff that is REALLY in error, instead of just the stuff that while technically accurate, still reflects poorly on you. But with this, the procedure to file a dispute is exactly the same, and the credit bureaus have those same 30 days to either prove the information or to remove it from your credit report.
When your credit report is squeaky clean, your resulting credit score will be as high as it should be, and that is, after all, what you wanted to accomplish!About the Author:
Jon is a computer engineer who maintain a variety of web sites based on his knowledge and experience. For more information about Raising Your Credit Score, please visit his web site at Improve Your Credit Score. Submitted at: marketplace4writers.com - WebSite Content and Article Directory "...because not everyone realizes that ones credit report contains more inaccurate data that you can shake a stick at. Who knows how many errors it contains, but chances are great..." |
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