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Mistakes happen to the best of us, which is why it is important to review your credit report occasionally and correct any mistakes that may appear.
Have your Credit Counselor order a copy of your credit report from each of the three major reporting agencies. Review them carefully looking for mistakes, inaccurate entrees or notations that are outdated and should be removed such as a bankruptcy. Look for errors that could impact your score: accounts that aren't yours; late payments that were actually paid on time; debts that were paid but are shown as outstanding; or old debts that should no longer be reported (debts should be deleted after seven years, with the exception of bankruptcies, which are reported for as long as 10 years.)
(See below for more information.)
Review the report looking for notices of late payments and how they are categorized. Notice that if a department store bill is due June 1 but isn't pad until July 6 it will go into the "30-day-late category on your credit report. If you made your payment before June 5th, but after the due date, you would accumulate a late charge and interest fees but it would not affect your credit report until after the 30 days past due had passed. Contact the credit bureau and the credit department of any relevant companies to ask for explanations of anything you do not understand.
If you identify a mistake, request a dispute form or submit your dispute to the credit reporting agency in writing, along with any supporting documentation. Do not send original documents.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires all credit reporting agencies to remove all obsolete, inaccurate, irrelevant, outdated, misidentifying, incomplete, incorrect, erroneous and misleading information from their credit reports, however it is up to individuals to ensure this is done. If your credit report contains inaccurate information, you are entitled by law to request a reinvestigation of information in your file that you dispute as inaccurate or incomplete. This investigation must be done at no charge to you.
If the new investigation reveals an error, you may ask that a corrected version of the report be sent to anyone who received your report within the past six months. Job applicants can have corrected reports sent to anyone who received a report for employment purposes during the past two years.
If the reinvestigation does not resolve your dispute, write a 100-word statement outlining your point of view and request the credit bureau make it a permanent part of your credit file. |
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