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How To Report An Error On Your Credit Report
Simple Steps To Improving Your Credit Report
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How To Obtain A Free Credit Report
By Debbie DragonAs a resident of the United States, the three main credit reporting companies in the country are required under law to provide one free credit report (each) to anyone who requests them within any given year. The three large credit reporting companies are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, and they are strictly monitored by Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to provide correct and true information.
Information from a person’s credit report provides companies, such as credit card companies, mortgage loaners, insurance companies, and potential employers, information on where a person currently lives, where a person has lived in the past several years, the person’s financial history – including any bankruptcies – and whether or not a person has been involved in any legal proceedings in the past.
Companies use this information to figure out what sort of risk a person is in terms of whether or not money should be lent or credit should be extended/offered to them. Because there is so much vital information included on a credit report, and it contains a good representation about a person’s ability to be responsible and trustworthy, it’s important for a person to monitor what is on his or her credit report, and ensure that everything on the report is correct and current.
The three main credit reporting companies in the United States all keep track of basically the same information. However, sometimes one credit agency will pick up and report slightly different information from the others. This is why it’s important to check the data on all three credit reports from all three companies on a yearly basis.
All of the reporting agencies have websites and toll-free telephone numbers which can be used to order free credit reports. If it seems time consuming to contact all three credit reporting agencies, there is a website (www.annualcreditreport.com) which will provide free credit reports from all three credit reporting companies with one single order. This prevents the need for contacting each reporting company individually.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) warns against seeing commercials on television that advertise free credit reports and acting upon them. The same sorts of advertisements are also located in numerous places on the internet, and they should be used only with extreme caution. Any website offering free copies of credit reports, besides www.annualcreditreport.com are usually out to make money. While they may offer free credit reports, they may try to charge users a fee for some sort of other credit reporting service.
In order to obtain free credit reports either from one individual or all three different credit reporting agencies, personal information is needed. Some of the data that must be available are a social security number, current and previous addresses, and other information that should (hopefully) only be known by the person whose name is on the report(s).
In today’s age of obtaining information instantly via the internet, receiving copies of credit reports is no exception. If correct information is submitted to www.annualcreditreport.com, the information on all three credit reports will almost instantly appear and be printable within seconds. On the other hand, if the credit reports are ordered via telephone, they may take a couple of weeks to arrive in the mail.
Once the credit reports are received, they should be thoroughly evaluated for any mistakes and inaccurate information. Any errors should be brought to the attention of the credit reporting company immediately. Under law, the credit reporting company must correct any and all mistakes, if there is proof that the mistakes and mis-information are legitimately incorrect. The agencies will work to determine if the errors are in need of correction and will usually make the changes on a credit report within a month.
About the Author: This article has been provided courtesy of Creditor Web. Creditor Web offers great credit card articles available for reprint and other tools to help you search and compare credit cards.
Source: www.isnare.com
Simple Steps To Improving Your Credit Report
By Www.creditandyou.comEven if you think you have a wonderful credit report, be wary of the error factor. Just as you receive mail with your name and address misspelled, your credit report can have errors as well. Whether it’s human error, out of date information or even mistaken identity, errors occur more easily than we’d all like to think.
Under the law, both the credit reporting agency and the organization that provided the information to the credit reporting agency have responsibilities for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information in your credit report.
So, if you find an error on your credit report, be sure to notify the credit bureau in writing
immediately:
1. Tell the CRA what information you believe is inaccurate on your credit report. Include copies, never originals of documents that support your position.
2. In addition to providing your complete name and address, your letter should clearly identify each item in your credit report that you dispute. State the facts and why you are disputing the information. Enclosing a copy of your credit report with the items in question circled can be helpful.
3. Though you may think your reason for writing is obvious, be sure to request that the error be corrected.
4. Send your letter by certified mail, return receipt requested so you can document what the credit reporting agency received. Make sure your letter is dated, and don’t forget to keep copies of everything you send.
Credit reporting agency must reinvestigate the item(s) in question, usually within 30 days unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all relevant data you send them to the information provider (bank, credit card agency, etc.).
After the information provider receives notification of a dispute from the credit reporting agency, it must review and investigate all relevant information provided and report the results back to the credit reporting agency.
If the information provider finds the disputed information to be inaccurate, it must notify all nationwide credit reporting agency so that they can correct this information in your file.
Disputed information that cannot be verified must be deleted from your file.
Inaccurate information must be corrected by the CRA.
Incomplete information must be corrected by the CRA.
Any account that belong only to another person must be deleted by the CRA.
NOTE: Credit repair can be long and tedious, the importance of knowing your rights cannot be emphasized enough so be sure you take time to digest this information.
About the Author: To find more easy steps anyone can take to repair there credit report and what to do after the investigation visit http://www.creditandyou.com/creditrepair.html it’s a free information website!
Source: www.isnare.com
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