How to Deal With a Credit Report Error

credit issues

No one is perfect; sorry guys, not even me (written with a massive laugh and eye roll, because I am so far from perfect!). We all have our flaws. We all make mistakes. Just the other day I made about 78 mistakes in the span of an hour in the eyes of my 4-year-old. It’s life. We are in a rush, we are distracted all the time, we never have enough hours in the day. That’s why we should stop being so hard on ourselves, learn from our mistakes and move on. And that’s why we should learn to keep our cool, our calm, when someone else makes a mistake that affects us. I know, it’s not easy; but mistakes happen.

When you notice that there is a mistake on your credit report, imagine that the person who reported that mistake or made the mistake inputting your information on your report was probably distracted by a head cold, a kid who isn’t handling the loss of a grandparent well, stress, exhaustion, a divorce, planning a wedding; whatever. People are not perfect and they make mistakes. However, you can fix it and we will tell you how to do that.

Write a letter

Make it short, sweet and to the point. Send it to the credit reporting agency and include your name, address, date, the name of the company you’re complaining about, the address of that company and what it is you are complaining about. Then include a list of all the documents you are including with the letter to support your claim. Mail it to the agency with whom you found the mistake.

Wait

The credit reporting agency has 30 days to investigate the claims that this is true or false. They have to contact the company in question. The company then has time to complete their own investigation and provide any proof that they have. Based on what they find and what all parties involved provide to the credit reporting agency, a decision will be made. If the company in question does not provide proof or does not investigate in the time given, the item will be handled accordingly.

Ask for a statement of dispute

If things don’t go your way, you can still ask the credit reporting agency to include a statement of dispute in your file so that anyone pulling your credit at least has your side of the story when it’s time to make a financial decision. Additionally, you can wait 7 years for it to fall off your report forever.

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