When there's a mistake on your credit report

Lee este artículo en español

The need to keep track of your own credit report is a fact of life nowadays. In 2013 the FTC ran a study that showed that 5% of all consumer credit reports had errors in them.

The US government now makes sure that we all get a free copy of our credit report per year,

so that we can find mistakes and correct them, and to prevent losses to identity theft.

But, do you know how to handle mistakes in your credit report?

Types of mistakes
When you see your credit report, the first thing you notice is the huge amount of information it contains. It’s smart to examine it in steps and, if you know to look out for the most common problems, it will help you confirm the accuracy of yours. Start by reading carefully your name, personal data, address and phone numbers, because sometimes companies enter these by hand. 

There are some common errors that you may have caused yourself. It’s because of inconsistency: sometimes you use your full name with middle name; others, your name, middle initial and two last names. These changes can cause some of your accounts to not appear as yours. The same thing happens with how you list your address, or the order you use on your date of birth (in the US it’s always listed MMDDAA, but that’s not the case in every country). 

Mistakes can de divided in two categories: data and accounts that you know that aren't yours, and errors on accounts that are yours.

The accounts that aren’t yours may appear for one of two reasons:

• Mistakes related to other consumers: accounts that belong to people with a similar name to yours may appear on your credit report by mistake. 
• Accounts opened by identity thieves. 

And then, there are plain and simple mistakes:

• Accounts that remain open when they should be closed; 

  

  Image: Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash.

• Accounts that show as delinquent but aren’t -this can happen when a company by mistake put your payment to someone else’s account, later rectified but by then the credit bureaus had already picked up the report for the month; 
• Wrong dates for account opening, last payment, or delinquencies; 
• One account that appears repeatedly when it’s only one account -this happens often when an account has been sent to a collections agency; 
• Incorrect balances -keep in mind that it’s difficult to ascertain sometimes, especially if you’re the kind of consumer how pays off account balances the next month. You’ll have to be sure to check the ending balance of the correct month on your account to be sure; 
• Wrong limits to your lines of credit; 
• Accounts that you have but are not on your credit report. There are companies that still don’t report to credit bureaus, but it can also be that due to a clerical error you’re not getting reported (sometimes not being reported comes from someone forgetting to click one box). It pays to contact those businesses not reporting. 

How to correct a mistake
You can do it by phone, online or by mail. Personally, I advocate doing it online because it gives me a digital record of my claim, I can take screenshots for my records and, if the credit bureau allows, I get an email confirming that I filed a claim and it’s processing. If you do it by mail, I’d encourage you to mail using signature request to confirm that the credit bureau gets your letter.

Contact information for the three credit bureaus is 

Experian
If by phone and if you obtained your credit report from Experian, the number to call to file a claim will be on the credit report.

By mail:
Experian
P.O. Box 4500
Allen, TX 75013

On this page you’ll find the list of things they ask you to submit when you find an error on your credit report.

Here you file online.

TransUnion

By phone, calling 1-800-916-8800

By mail, the address is:
TransUnion LLC
Consumer Dispute Center
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016

And here are their claim instructions.

To file online.

Equifax 

Their phone number is 1- 866-349-5191.

By mail:
Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA 30374-0256

Online, on this page.

Do I need to file a claim with all three credit bureaus?
In theory, once your claim has been reviewed, approved and your data corrected, the other credit bureaus will pick up the correction and make their own updates. If you are in a hurry to have your credit cleared with all three, or if you wish to be absolutely certain that it gets done, you should contact all three simultaneously.

What happens after I make a claim?
The statutory time to solve a consumer claim is 30 days, but the credit bureau may gain an additional 15 days if you have to submit additional documentation.

The credit bureaus, by law, must notify the information provider of your claim within five

Image: Rawpixel on Unsplash.

days of receiving your claim. That provider, in turn, investigates and either confirms that the information it has is right or corrects the mistake; you’re informed of the decision and your credit report is corrected. The information provider is also notified of the correction.

If you allow it, the credit bureau will also send your corrected credit report to any company that might have pulled your credit report for employment purposes in the last 24 months.

What if my claim gets denied?
It can happen, if the credit bureau decides that your claim is without merit, or if the information provider proves that the information they provided was indeed correct. In that case and, if you’re sure that your claim is correct, you have the right to contact that company to file a claim for correction through them directly.

However, if the error is still not corrected, you do have the right to ask the credit bureau to list your point of view on the claim and the mistake so that anyone who pulls your report while that error shows will see that you dispute it.