Things To Know For Disputing Credit Report Errors

The first step to settles credit score inaccuracies is to find the entry on your credit report. If you're in doubt, go online to get a copy of your credit report from the three major reporting agencies: Experian, Equifax and Trans Union. They charge either a small fee or a percentage of the credit (depending on the item) of the information they have on file.

Disputing Credit Bureau entries

If you see discrepancies in your credit report, such as a wrong account number in your personal history, or an old credit card paid off but still showing that you owe a balance, action is your next move. Check your monthly bills and verify that you have the money to pay off the debt. Since so many bills are monthly, the amounts simply shouldn't be too big for you to owe. Then call the credit card and ask them to give you your remaining balance (as long as it's less than half the total bad debt). While you are in this time frame they will ask you for more information regarding your account status, 80% of the time they will be able to remove the information from your report if you simply pay this one off. When you pay it off, they will mark this as "paid on time". Don't get complacent! This will count against you as well as take a penalty of having less credit available to you. This will usually take 60 days for the changes to happen. If you're the type of person who always does their payments on time, give you missed payment some time ago and establish some positive payment history, you could call your creditor and simply ask them to change the negative information to "paid". Do this as your way of negotiating of a major debt. One note of caution, be sure that you are the only one a representative talked to. You'll have to talk to someone that actually has the power to change any information on your credit report.

Ask the bureau to correct errors

You have the right to dispute any information on your credit file that you believe is wrong or incorrect. You are also entitled to ask the bureau to remove any information regardless of its accuracy if the information is outdated. The only way that the information will be removed is if you can demonstrate a reasonable reason that the information is incorrect. There do not seem to be any reasons why you would want to use this option but it is your legal right.

Ordering your credit reports is the same procedure. The only difference is that you do not get them all at once a year as you are entitled to. Get each report with every account you have and review them line by line.