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Follow these steps to
correct your credit report: |
Do
this for the reports from all three of the credit
bureaus:
TransUnion (800) 888-4213 or
www.transunion.com
Experian (888) EXPERIAN or
www.experian.com
Equifax (800) 685-1111 or
www.equifax.com
1. Review your report and
make a list of everything that's either incorrect or
out-of-date, including:
- A wrong date or late
payments you made on time
- Accounts that don't belong
to you or don't exist anymore
- Negative information older
than seven years (bankruptcies older than 10 years)
- Incomplete personal
information like your address or employment
information (NOTE: if you have old accounts on your
credit report, but the accounts reflect positive
payment information, don't request removal of those
positive accounts from your credit report. Credit
scoring models generally provide higher scores to
customers with a long, established record of
positive payments. Removing good accounts from your
credit report, even if they're out of date, will
likely hurt your score.)
2. Send the credit bureau a
letter listing each inaccurate item with an explanation
of what is wrong.
3. Once the credit bureau receives your request, they
should respond within 30 days. If they don't respond
within 30 days, send them a second letter
The credit bureau's response will be one of the
following:
- If your request is
verified, the credit bureau will correct your
report. It will take at least 30-60 days before you
will see changes in your credit reports and scores.
- If the bureau can't verify
your corrections as valid or invalid, they're
required to make the corrections to your report.
This can happen when the creditor is no longer in
business or no longer has records of the
transaction.
- If the bureau can find
information proving your request is invalid, the
report will remain unchanged.
4. If for some reason the
credit bureau doesn't make the corrections you
requested, contact the creditor directly and ask them to
explain anything you don't understand and to make the
corrections.
5. If neither the credit bureau nor the creditor will
make the corrections, you have a right to include a
brief corrective statement in your report.
Contact the credit bureau to add your statement, which
will probably be limited to 100 words. The statement
won't affect your score, which is usually the first
screener that lenders use to evaluate your credit. Keep
in mind that creditors rarely read credit files and
therefore may not see your comments. They also tend to
lend more credibility to the credit bureau than to the
consumer.
6. If you have
complaints about your credit report and are unable to
have them quickly resolved, you can contact the Federal
Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP or
www.ftc.gov
Paid Credit Repair
You can pay "credit repair" firms to correct your credit
report errors. However, be mindful that these agencies
cannot do anything legally that you cannot do yourself.
Be careful about some of the scams regarding so-called
"credit repair" firms:
If the agency suggests that you create a new Social
Security number, Employer Identification Number, or a
Taxpayer ID number -- don't do it. They're essentially
trying to create a new identity for you in order to
dodge your old credit. Doing this is a felony, and if
you use the Internet or telephone to do it, you can be
charged with racketeering. Getting yourself into further
trouble is no way to handle your debt.
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Disclaimer: This information is provided as
a service to the public. While our goal is to
provide information that will help consumers to
manage their credit and debt, this information
should not be considered legal advice.
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