A common occurrence may be errors in credit reports. It can vary from inaccurate personal data to incorrect credit accounts. These mistakes may have a detrimental effect on your credit score, which will further hamper your chances of gaining approval for a loan or credit card. This makes it important to know how to rectify errors in your credit report. To avoid further issues, you should rectify the errors at the earliest. Before beginning with the steps to rectify errors in it, let’s look at some of the common mistakes in your credit report.
TYPES OF ERRORS IN YOUR CREDIT REPORT:
There may be different types of credit report errors. In your credit report, however, here are some types of common mistakes that you need to watch out for:
- Identity-related errors:
- Errors in identity, such as an incorrect name, telephone number, address, or PAN number.
- Mixing information about identity with someone with the same or similar name.
- Account related errors:
- A closed account, which is still reported as open.
- A new account with no display at all.
- Accounts that are reported as defaulting incorrectly.
- Wrong date of EMI payment or misrepresentation of late payment.
- An account with different creditors, listed more than once.
- Showing those accounts which are very old.
- Balance related errors:
- Incorrect account balances.
- Inaccurate credit limits.
It is important to note, however, that any kind of data update will take at least two months. Thus, an account that is not older than 2 months may not be included in your report. Also, because it has not yet been updated, an account could reflect wrong balances.
Step 1: Review your credit report.
Two key items that will help you to correct mistakes and make sure everything is right in your report are to update your credit score frequently and review your credit report annually. The credit bureaus, i.e., for your convenience, Once a year, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian send you a free copy of your report where you can see your credit scores and access the reports’ details.
Step 2: Contact your credit bureau to fix the errors in your credit report.
After checking your credit report, it is important to correct the issue as soon as possible if you have found a mistake. You need to contact the credit office from where the report was generated for this. First, to proceed with the dispute process, you need to obtain an online dispute form from the official website of the respective credit bureau. Fill in the form with the appropriate details and send it to the bureau.
Step 3: Review and submit the dispute form.
Double-check your request for a dispute, review the information before sending the form if you wish. When the case is successfully filed, you’ll see a confirmation tab. You may use the link “Upload a folder” to send scanned pages to help your dispute, such as a copy of an email confirming the wrongly stated account status.
Step 4: Wait for the credit bureau’s response to your credit report dispute.
The credit bureau usually has 30-45 days to investigate and check data with the furnisher after obtaining your dispute. After that, within five days of completing its investigation, the credit bureau will also report the findings back to you.
Step 5: Review the results of the investigation.
After the investigation is complete, if the dispute results in a change to the report, the credit bureau involved must give you the results of the investigation in writing and also a free copy of the credit report. The name, address, and telephone number of the furnisher who registered the incorrect details must also be given to you by the credit bureau. If a furnisher continues to register a disputed object, it is important to inform the concerned credit bureau of your dispute. The furnisher must notify the credit bureau to correct or delete the item if the disputed information is found to be incorrect. In order for the bureaus to update their records, the furnisher must also notify all the credit bureaus to which he sent the incorrect details.
Step 6: Check for updates to your credit report.
It may take some time to represent changes to your credit report as it relies on the update period of the particular credit bureau and when the furnisher sends the new data to the credit bureau. If within several months the update does not appear on your credit reports, then you need to contact the credit bureaus and the furnisher for the same.
BOTTOM LINE
It is important to challenge errors on time on your credit report. It will help boost the health of your credit and your chances of acceptance for loans and credit cards. It is also recommended that you periodically review your credit reports so that you can keep an eye on your credit score and the accuracy of the details listed in your credit report.
