How Mistakes are Made

How credit report mistakes are made

When a credit report contains errors, it is often because the report is incomplete or it contains information about someone else. This typically happens because:

• The person applied for credit under different names (Robert Jones, Bob Jones, etc.)

• Someone made a clerical error in reading or entering name or address information from a hand-written application.

• The person gave an inaccurate Social Security number, or the number was misread by the lender.

• Loan or credit card payments were inadvertently applied to the wrong account.

As you can see, mistake can and do occur for these and a variety of other reasons.   In addition to these types of errors, there are other types of errors that occur that also have a negative affect on your score.   These can and often do include:

• Late payment information on your report that is old and outdated

• Inconsistent credit limits being reported

• Good credit accounts and payment history omitted

• Showing the same loan reported more than once

• Showing different balances that are due

• Wrong information about an the last activity date in an account

These are just a few of the additional types of errors found on credit reports.   To make matters even worse, consider that there are three credit bureaus - not one.   Your lender may choose to report to any or all of the bureaus, and each bureau can make any or all of the mistakes just mentioned.

 

However

In their defense, the three credit bureaus; Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian have the overwhelming task of managing the credit files of over 700 million people worldwide.   Accept the fact that occasionally they're going to make mistakes. Don't take it personally, and don't barrage them with frivolous letters - get involved, take control, and fix the problem.