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Credit Reports and Credit Score
- Getting Your Credit Report
- Mistakes On Your Credit Report
- Disputing Credit Reports
- What Is A Credit Score
- Improve Your Credit Score
Mistakes On Your Credit Report
Errors on your credit report will have a negative impact on your eligibility for any future credit and will lower your credit score. It is extremely important to review your credit report regularly and to make sure that corrections are made if any mistakes had been entered in error by the creditors or the credit bureaus —Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.
Some common reasons for credit report errors include:
- A person has several different names when applying for credit (i.e. John Doe and Jonathon Doe)
- Someone misread the information while doing the data entry (names, social security numbers, addresses, etc.) from a handwritten application.
- Information was entered into the account of someone with the same name. For example, there is likely more than one John Smith living in New York City and often there is the chance that information intended for one John Smith might appear on another John Smith's credit report as he applies for a mortgage.
- The person wrote down an inaccurate Social Security number or the number was misread by the creditor or data entry clerk.
- A loan or credit card payment was credited to the wrong account. Leaving your account as ‘Past Due’.
No matter what the reason, the erroneous information left on your credit report will cost you in the long run. You may have approval problems when the time comes to apply for a job or obtain a home mortgage loan. If you find errors, no matter how small, be sure you get them fixed, and make sure that you contact all three credit bureaus with your change.