When credit reports are wrong, they can be a problem for you. Whether someone else’s information is entered onto your report or debts are sent to collection when they were already paid, it’s important that you address these issues right away.
It is normal for mistakes to be made, but when they affect you, it’s vital that they’re corrected. In fact, the top complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is that there were incorrect pieces of information on a credit report. Errors were at the top of the list.
Errors are more common than you think
Errors on credit reports are more common than you think. As many as 26% of people participating in a study by the Federal Trade Commission reported that they had been victims of at least one error on their credit reports. Those errors made them look like they were riskier to lenders, potentially forcing them to take on debt with higher interest rates.
The potential negative impact of an error on your credit report shouldn’t be misunderstood. A single mistake could make it nearly impossible to get a credit card or loan. For example, if you have a judgment against you that is listed on the account, a lender may see that you failed to repay a debt and refuse to lend to you. If that judgment never actually happened to you but instead to someone else, then you are being penalized for someone else’s actions.
How can you look for errors on your credit report?
To find errors, you will need to look at your FICO score or go to a site such as Credit Karma. There, you can download your credit score and see the factors that are currently affecting it. By doing this, you can see if there are any accounts in collections or if you have unusual actions on your credit. You can identify errors as well as if someone else has opened a credit card or account in your name that you have to dispute.
If you find errors that have negatively affected you, reach out to your attorney to learn more about how you can have those errors removed from your credit report and what you can do about making sure these errors don’t happen again. You may even be able to seek compensation from the company that made the wrongful report to the credit reporting agencies.
