How to Fix Credit Report Errors

Are you feeling angry, exasperated, or frustrated?

You trusted them, but they let you down. They made a mistake, and that mistake is costing you big time.

Perhaps this is the feeling you get when your credit score takes a hit through no fault of yours. Your report has otherwise been spotless, until the credit bureau ended up making errors. Since they affect the credit score in the end, such incidents are regrettable. With a flawed score, you are much less likely to get loans or credit cards, and it could affect a lot of your financial prospects.

Why Would Your Credit Report Have Errors?

Here's what happens. Every month, your lenders and creditors send details of your loan account to one of the three major credit bureaus, namely Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. These are the organizations that ultimately create and update your credit report.

There can be errors in the calculation for a number of reasons. These mistakes can include reportings from accounts that are not yours, inaccurate transactions, payments mistakenly reported as being made late, and much more. 

You need to ensure that the credit account records are accurate. This brings us to the next question...

How Do You Locate These Errors?

Now, if you wish to check for credit report errors, the best thing to do is to check your credit report. Remember the credit bureaus we named above? All of those give you a credit report once a year, for free! This means that you can check your report thrice a year. Additionally, if you have been turned down for loans etc. due to your credit score, you can get one more free credit report.

If you are not able to get these reports for free, don't worry. You can buy these from the bureaus for a sum of Rs.550 - Rs.1400. 

Study the report from a bureau each quarter and compare them at the end of the year to identify discrepancies or mistakes.

Now that you have learned how to spot mistakes, let's see how you can dispute credit report errors.

Common Credit Report Errors

Common errors that are disputed are: 

• Accounts that don't belong to you

• Payments reported late while they were made on time

• Wrong loan amount/credit limit/account balance

• Wrong creditor

• Incorrect account status

Dispute Errors on Your Credit Report

You may have thought that you can dispute all credit report errors. Technically yes, but that does not necessarily mean that a change will reflect accordingly.

While you do have the provision to dispute anything in the credit report, the credit bureaus shall still investigate and only remove items that they are authorized to remove. Issues you can dispute are those that are incomplete, inaccurate, out of date, or unverifiable.

Here are a few points to remember: negative items remain on your credit report for seven years, and bankruptcy remains for ten years. 

If you have had any negative items for longer than seven years, then you can confidently dispute it as a credit report error.

What You Can Do When a Credit Bureau Will Not Fix an Error 

Credit bureaus are required by law to report to an inquiry within 30 days. If you send additional documents after that, the period for the bureaus to respond becomes 45 days. If they do not answer, you can sue them in court. 

However, there are things in your credit report they are not liable to remove. For instance, bankruptcy can't be removed before a period of ten years is up. 

Disputing Errors - the Process

You can place complaints against credit report errors in three ways: through mail, online, or by phone.

Dispute Credit Report Errors Online

While this way is convenient, it is not without its drawbacks. You get to check the status of your records and the dispute only online. 

When you dispute credit report errors online, you get results online only. To do so, you must provide your confirmation number. However, one cannot complete the process entirely online - you still have to mail the required documents as proof.

Dispute Credit Report Errors by Mail

Getting results this way will take more time, but there are many benefits. For one, when you communicate by real mail, it leaves a paper trail. Since the credit bureaus need to respond to you within 30 days, you can be sure of a response. In case they don't, you can sue the bureau in court.

For disputing through mail, you need to write a letter with information regarding which item should be removed and why. You should include proof of the error as well.

Disputing Through Phone

You will usually find a number in your credit report to use for disputing errors. Use it. Also make sure that you remember when you made the call, whom you spoke to, the information shared, the nature of the dispute, and the proof submitted.

It may happen, however, that you may need to contact the concerned credit bureau for more information.

Documents Needed as Proof

Here are some of the documents that you are expected to submit in case of disputes:

• Proof of name, address, date of birth, and PAN card number - in case they are provided incorrectly in reports,

• Copy of driver's license

• Your recent statement from the bank

• Your PAN card number

• A canceled check to show you paid bills on time

• Billing statement to confirm your credit card balance

Conclusion

Disputing credit errors and getting them corrected takes a lot of time. Fortunately, you can get your credit score repaired at mymoneykarma.

We help you to fix credit report errors, address your credit score woes, and build your overall credit health.