You Deserve A Clean Credit Score - Remove Inaccuracies From Your Credit Reports_32689

Errors do happen, but when it comes to your credit score, you don't really want to pay the cost of those errors. A survey conducted by the United States Public Interest Research Group in 2004 across 30 states revealed that 79% of the credit reports they sampled contained an error of some kind. 25% of the reports had errors that were serious enough to cause rejection of credit applications. Since credit scores are used by financial institutions in judging consumers' credit worthiness, you have to make sure that you are being assessed fairly and that the information they use for calculating this statistic are accurate.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act recognizes the consumers' right to accurate information on their credit reports. As part of its provisions, you can avail of free copies of your credit reports from the three major credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, once every 12 months. You may access their common Website, annualcreditreport.com, to request for these copies. If ever you have experienced any adverse action related to your credit in the last 60 days, you may also avail of these reports for free.

Once you get your copies of your credit report, go over all of the information, especially the negative information, and verify if they are accurate. If you have difficulty distinguishing the negative from the positive reports, the negative items are notated with the following labels: Late payments; Charge off; Collection; Write-off; Repossession; Foreclosure; Settled; Included in bankruptcy; Court accounts such as liens, judgments, divorce, bankruptcy chapters 7 or 13; Inquiries. Equifax and TransUnion use the characters '>>>' either before or after the negative reports. Experian, on the other hand, marks all negative items with an asterisk.

Some common errors that have been spotted include accounts that belong to another person and inaccurate delinquency reports. You should also be on the look-out for duplicate accounts or balances traceable to identity theft. Some reports failed to present information on major loans that could generate positive reports on the account owner's credit-worthiness.

For any inaccuracy that you find, write a dispute letter to each of the credit bureaus. Clearly identify the erroneous item on your report and explain your reasons for believing the items to be inaccurate. You deserve a clean credit score. Just remember to exercise your right to accurate credit information.