WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR REPORTS
Read, read, read. Carefully go through each entire report and make sure there are no errors. Errors are common. According to a study done in 2004 by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), as many as 79 percent of credit reports have errors. According to the study, 2.5 percent of those errors were serious enough that credit could easily have been denied to consumers because of the wrong information. The study is called "Mistakes Do Happen: A Look at Errors in Consurer Credit Reports."
The Web sites of the three credit bureaus have very explicit directions on how to read their reports, which all look somewhat different. Read the directions to understand how each bureau presents the information. If you see something you don t understand, call the bureaus toll-free number. A customer service representative can help you translate the jargon, or explain anything else that doesn't make sense to you.
IF YOU FIND A MISTAKE
To fix mistakes on your reports, you have to take charge. This process is called "dispute."
If you want to dispute an item on your report, the first step is to contact the credit bureau by writing a letter, explaining the error you've found. The credit bureau will open an investigation, which will probably include contacting the lender who told the bureau that, for example, you missed a few payments. The lender a will then review the information and report back to the bureau with its findings. If the credit bureau agrees that the item on your report is an error, the bureau will make the change in your report. By law, the companies have 30 days to investigate and report back to you on their findings.
lf you need help writing a dispute letter, the Federal Trade Commission offers a sample letters.
If the credit bureau has a mistake in your file, there`s a good chance that the same mistake will appear on your other reports as well. Creditscoreking.com strongly urges you to compare the other two credit reports to make sure they don't have the same mistake. If they do, notify those bureaus of the errors. Also, be aware that the lender who misreported the information to the first bureau is required to make the correction at all three bureaus. Still, it's smart to make sure that this happens.
If the investigation into your complaint goes your way, great. The lender is then required to give you the results in writing, and if the investigation leads to a change to your report, the bureau must give you another free report. (This doesn't count as one of your annual free reports.) If the mistake has been fixed, you can request that the bureau contact all those who received the inaccurate report in the past six months (or the past two years, for employers) to tell them of the correction.
If the investigation doesn't turn out as you hoped, and the credit bureau and the lender insist that the information is accurate, there's not much you can do to change it. But what you can do is add a short written statement to your credit file to explain your side of the story. You can do this free. Your written statement will then become part of your credit report, and anyone who wants to see your report will also see your version of events.
It is important to understand that you can`t dispute negative information that`s true and accurate. The only way true bad marks on your credit report, such as a bankruptcy, will vanish, is after the passage of time.