Credit Repair – Looking For Errors
Wendy Polisi asked:
There are many ways to repair your credit once it has been damaged, but one of the most obvious is to ensure that your credit reports are accurate. The fact is, keeping track of everyone’s credit history is a massive undertaking and mistakes are not uncommon. These include putting other people’s mistakes in your credit record and failing to remove items after they should have been.
Each of the “Big Three” credit reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – maintains their own separate databases and credit records. Further, each of them receives their information from different sources. These two facts mean that the chances of mistakes affecting your overall credit rating are extremely high. Too many people are entering too much data from too many sources for it to be a flawless operation.
You have three different FICO scores, one from each bureau. If you have a large disparity between one report and the others, this is a good indicator that you may have a mistake in your credit file.
All three scores are important, and have a direct impact on your ability to borrow, and terms by which you can borrow. Lenders have different guidelines, but it is fairly common that they use your middle score. Therefore, merely “getting your credit report” is not enough if you want to improve your score. Instead, you should get all three reports from each of the agencies and carefully conduct a line-by-line review to look for mistakes.
Bear in mind that a mistake may not be an entire entry in of itself, but it might involve the amount of money involved, the time when the debt was reported, or the final disposition of the debt. This is why the line-by-line review is a good idea. You may see an entry regarding a debt you did in fact pay late on, but it might not have been reported at the appropriate time (a common measure taken to keep items on your credit report longer than they should be) or for an incorrect amount.
Also, keep in mind that new information is being added to your report on a regular basis. Therefore inspecting your credit report for mistakes is not a one time event, but should be undertaken on a regular basis. Once a year, or about nine months before you intend to apply for a major loan, are the usual recommendations for inspecting your credit report for errors.
There are many ways to repair your credit once it has been damaged, but one of the most obvious is to ensure that your credit reports are accurate. The fact is, keeping track of everyone’s credit history is a massive undertaking and mistakes are not uncommon. These include putting other people’s mistakes in your credit record and failing to remove items after they should have been.
Each of the “Big Three” credit reporting agencies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – maintains their own separate databases and credit records. Further, each of them receives their information from different sources. These two facts mean that the chances of mistakes affecting your overall credit rating are extremely high. Too many people are entering too much data from too many sources for it to be a flawless operation.
You have three different FICO scores, one from each bureau. If you have a large disparity between one report and the others, this is a good indicator that you may have a mistake in your credit file.
All three scores are important, and have a direct impact on your ability to borrow, and terms by which you can borrow. Lenders have different guidelines, but it is fairly common that they use your middle score. Therefore, merely “getting your credit report” is not enough if you want to improve your score. Instead, you should get all three reports from each of the agencies and carefully conduct a line-by-line review to look for mistakes.
Bear in mind that a mistake may not be an entire entry in of itself, but it might involve the amount of money involved, the time when the debt was reported, or the final disposition of the debt. This is why the line-by-line review is a good idea. You may see an entry regarding a debt you did in fact pay late on, but it might not have been reported at the appropriate time (a common measure taken to keep items on your credit report longer than they should be) or for an incorrect amount.
Also, keep in mind that new information is being added to your report on a regular basis. Therefore inspecting your credit report for mistakes is not a one time event, but should be undertaken on a regular basis. Once a year, or about nine months before you intend to apply for a major loan, are the usual recommendations for inspecting your credit report for errors.
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