Having a good credit report is a factor in getting approved for credit at the best rate and terms. Your credit reports contain important information about your borrowing history. When you’ve worked hard to take care of your credit, the last thing you need is to have errors on your credit report bring down your score, and errors on credit reports affect a surprising number of people. Here are ten of the most common errors found on credit reports:
Accounts That Don’t Belong to You
If digits of a social security number are input incorrectly or if a name is similar to yours or misspelled, you could end up with someone else’s accounts on your credit report. There’s also the possibility that someone is fraudulently using your personal information. If you find accounts that don’t belong to you on your credit report, dispute them immediately.
Incorrect Personal Information
Check that the spelling of your name is correct as well as your address, phone number, and social security number. Incorrect personal information is a common error on credit reports.
Loans Showing as Past Due That are Current
If you always pay your bills on time, but one of your accounts is showing up as past due, your creditor may have reported wrong information to the credit bureau about your account.
Accounts Showing as Open That Are Closed
If you’ve closed an account but it shows on your credit report as being open, it can make it look like you owe more money than you do.
Accounts Showing as Closed That Are Open
Accounts may show as closed even though you’re currently making payments on them. This can hurt your credit, especially if you have a limited borrowing history and are trying to build a history of good credit.
Credit Report Hasn’t Been Updated
You may discover that your credit report hasn’t been updated to show recent payments or other activity. If this happens, your credit utilization rate may be reported incorrectly.
Reporting as a Borrower When you’re an Authorized User
There’s a difference between being a borrower and an authorized user, and if you appear to be the borrower when that’s not what you are, this information should be corrected.
Wrong Balance
If one of your creditors fails to update the balance owed, it can make your total debt appear higher than it is. Make sure loan balances are correctly reported.
Wrong Credit Limit
Is the credit limit of revolving credit accounts reporting the correct limit? If the limit appears higher or lower than it should, this error should be corrected.
Duplicate Accounts
Reporting errors can cause an account to appear on your credit report twice. This is another error that can cause your total debt to appear higher than it is.
Correcting Credit Reporting Errors
With as many as two out of every three consumers having errors on their credit reports, it can’t be overemphasized how important it is to review your credit reports and dispute errors promptly. Need help with credit issues because of inaccurate reporting?
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