Although credit reporting agencies are expected to produce the most reliable credit reports for consumers and creditors alike, it s inevitable to find errors in your credit report. There are legitimate reasons for this. However, since credit reports are produced only through the information you give, it is very possible that errors occur because of the wrong information credit reporting agencies receive.
Errors on your credit report are a big deal. Since it is what creditors and other establishments rely on to determine your creditworthiness, a mistake on your credit report could bring damage to your financial life. But it doesn t mean that when you have errors on your credit report, there are no longer any means to correct them.
Of course, the only way you can determine if there are indeed errors is to get a copy of your credit report and cross check it with you own records of your credit transactions and activities. Assuming that you do discover mistakes on your credit report, these are the following steps you should follow to dispute errors:
You are responsible
When you see an error on your credit report, you are the one responsible for starting a dispute. This means that it is entirely up to you if you want to do something about the mistake or leave it be. Of course, with the effects of a bad credit report, you should think of filing a dispute. The first thing you should do is to contact the consumer reporting company and the other information providers (creditors and other establishments that supplied the wrong information).
Contacting the reporting company
You should create a letter of dispute. The letter must contain your claims about the information that you think is wrong or inaccurate. Do attach all the files that would support your claim. However, you should only send copies of the original documents. Obviously, your letter should contain your name and address or any other contact information.
Make a clear dispute letter
You should take extra care and put in an ounce of effort stating which specific items on your credit report appear to be inaccurate. Include all the facts and explain clearly why you think it s erroneous. Make a request as to what you want to be done with the inaccurate information. You can ask for it to be either removed or corrected. To be sure that the credit reporting agency understands your claims, you can attach a copy of your report and encircle the items you are disputing.
Be patient in waiting
When you have already sent the dispute letter and all the other documents, the best thing you could do is to wait. The credit reporting agencies and the information suppliers will start investigating your claims. This usually takes thirty days unless they think that your dispute is frivolous. While the investigation takes place, you should keep all the documents you receive from the agency since they would be informing you about the developments. On the other hand, the process will be a lot easier for everyone if you cooperate in providing information required.
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This article has been provided by http://www.free-credit-reports.com , where you can compare credit report and identity theft protection services with this comprehensive chart of all credit report and credit score service providers.
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