How to Spot Mistakes on Your Credit Report

In order to improve your credit score and receive the best terms on loans and credit cards, you must have a clear picture of what creditors are seeing on your credit report. Mistakes on your credit report are more common than you might think. According to a recent study, 1 out of 3 individuals who pulled their credit reports found significant errors that negatively impacted their credit scores. Follow the steps below to learn how to pull your credit report and spot errors that could be lowering your credit score by hundreds of points.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Credit reports from 3 credit bureaus

1. Begin by obtaining free copies of your credit reports from the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) that monitor individuals' credit histories. Free reports can be obtained by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com. You are allowed to request one free credit report from each bureau every 12 months.

2. Compare each of the three credit reports that you receive against each other. Make sure that the reports essentially contain the same information. Highlight any information in one report that is not found within another report.

3. Go through each of your three credit reports and make sure that your home address and employment information are up-to-date. Note any errors that will need to be reported to the credit bureaus.

4. Review the accounts listed on your credit reports and look out for credit cards or loans that might have been mistakenly attributed to you. Also, make sure that there are no applications listed on your credit reports that you didn't fill out.

5. Highlight any old collections actions that are still being listed as overdue. Also, note any delinquencies on your reports that you have may already remedied. You will need to ask each of the credit bureaus to correct these mistakes.

6. Getting the errors listed above fixed on your reports can increase your credit score by as much as 200 points. Send a quick letter to each of the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) detailing the mistakes found in each of their credit reports. Include a copy of the inaccurate credit report with your letter and circle or highlight the errors that you are contesting. Inaccuracies can be corrected fairly quickly since credit bureaus are required to investigate any claims of errors within 30 days.

7. Consistently monitoring your credit score will help you make more informed decisions when making home and automobile purchases, securing loans, paying for college educations, and managing your personal finances. You can easily track your credit on a daily basis by signing up for a score monitoring service offered by a credit management company. One of the easiest to use is the Equifax Score Watch report. See the Resources section below for a link to more information on this score monitoring service.

Resources

• Equifax Score Watch

[godfather25]

on 8/18/2009 Very nice tips on spotting mistakes on your credit report.

[Anai]

on 8/16/2009 Thanks for the practical pointers. Everyone should check their credit report regularly.

[kencraw]

on 8/16/2009 Great tip. Everybody should be checking their credit report. One quick add to this: Get a free credit report from one of the big three every 4 months. After that get the second and then the third. Then you can get 3 free reports every year.

[Upon-Request]

on 8/15/2009 Good tips!