How to Dispute Mistakes on your Credit Card Report

 

How to Dispute Mistakes on your Credit Card Report 

There are several no-brainer things that compel one to care about the credit score, while there are very few benefits of neglecting it. Of course, having a good credit score and credit history will come in handy every time you want to buy a house or get an auto loan. Being blacklisted can actually come back to haunt you when say you need to rent an apartment or you are seeking a job.

However, the score is not the only component you should consider in this case. Another thing you have to consider is your credit report he document that lists your formal credit history including any accounts you have open, balances due, and payments you’ve made.

Your report and your score are actually closely related to each other because it is your report that forms your score. This is a big problem if bad information gets on your credit report due to fraud or misreporting because this can easily bring your credit score down. Similarly, credit report devoid of any negative information but only genuine and accurate information will help take the credit score to new heights.

That is why, annually, you should request and obtain a free credit report from all of the three credit reporting companies of Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Fortunately, this part is easy to achieve, thanks to the AnnualCreditReport.

How to contest the data provided in your credit report

After you have obtained a credit report from the three credit bureaus, you will need to go through all the necessary details to ensure they are accurate. Undefined.

• Mistakes related to your name or identity

• Inanimate objects and accounts that you do not even own

• Other person’s accounts with a name close to your actual name

• It also reclassified closed accounts as open ones.

• Late payments as reported with some discrepancies

• Accounts repeated across the list

• Outstanding errors on accounts

• Misreported credit limits to accounts

Thankfully, due to the FCRA, both the credit bureau as well as whoever is reporting to them is held liable for fixing any misleading info on your credit report. This means that even if a particular retailer or a bank is reporting an account that is not belonging to you, or a wrong balance, the credit bureau as well as the retailer/bank have to correct the situation.

Report to the credit bureau with the wrong information of the error

The first thing you should do is advise the credit reporting agency of the error, and be advised that the bureaus may not all be the same. You should inform them in writing but ensure that the notice contains all pertinent details about the mistake as well as proper documentation. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has even provided an example of the letter you can write if you have no idea how it should look like.

It is important to understand that credit bureaus are allowed thirty days in which to investigate the credit report and they are mandated to respond. They also have to relay back to the provider information you sent them, especially if the provider gave them the information in the first place.

Let the person who gave the information know that there was an error.

You will also have to ensure that the company reporting the wrong figure is an availed with copies of any documents as evidence that there was an error. Don’t forget to provide all specifications necessary for a successful confirmation of the thesis statement, along with the copies of documents supporting them. The FTC provides another sample of the dispute letter that you can use for this instance.

Wait for the credit report to be changed.

As a general rule, credit reporting agencies have to advise on writing that contains information about the results of your case. It is also legally mandatory to provide you with another free credit report if the dispute led to the change permanently.

You also have the right to request that the credit bureau forward all notification of any deletion to anyone who has requested a copy of your credit report within the last two years. You can also request that an updated copy be given to anyone who has requested a different version of your credit report for purposes of employment.

Caring about your Credit.

The above mentioned may seem complicated, but it is vital to know the harm caused by wrong information on the credit report. For instance, you can have erroneous late payments on your report and a simple inquiry or any activity at all may significantly drag down your credit score with no mistake of your own. And if there are accounts that you never opened or used, that on their own can indicate that there are far bigger issues going on,like total identity theft.

Luckily, the few minutes that one can spend appealing an item on the credit report can help him or her gain a lot. Well, if somehow the negative entries that you were able to get off your report should cease to pull your score down right away.

But, as you should always remember, only such false negative information can be deleted from your credit reports. Any detail which is harmful and accurate, will have to stay on your report until the timeframe elapses. In general it is noteworthy that the negative records as well as the information regarding negative reporting can be reported up to seven years at least the record of bankruptcy can remain up to 10 years.

The bottom line

You should know that mistakes are made all over the places and they may never come to the surface if you did not notice them. Apart from regularly checking your credit report it can be wise to subscribe to one of the free services, alerting you about the new credit accounts opened in your name or the change in your credit score. CreditKarma. com and Credit Sesame. more and com are two that offer a like free service but with these features so both are worth trying out.