It’s important to regularly check your credit report for inaccuracies, as credit reporting agencies often misrepresent an individual’s creditworthiness through credit reporting errors.
A person’s credit score is the most influential factor that financial institutions use to determine the level of risk associated with lending money to an individual. An individual’s credit score is calculated based on information taken from each of the three big credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Despite this importance, these credit reporting agencies often misrepresent or inaccurately report an individual’s creditworthiness. Therefore, it is vitally important that you keep a watchful eye on your credit report to ensure that it is accurate.
Checking Your Credit Report
To review your credit report, any consumer in the United States is entitled to one free credit report each year by visiting annualcreditreport.com. This is the only authorized website for free annual credit reports, any other website that claims to provide free credit reports likely comes with strings attached, like converting to a paying service after a trial period.
For those that are active duty military servicemembers, you can sign up to have the credit reporting agencies monitor your credit report for you and inform you of any material changes. To be eligible, the servicemember must be an “active duty military consumer,” which means that you are assigned to service away from your usual duty station or be a member of the National Guard. If you are eligible and opt in (see below), credit reporting agencies are required to notify you of any “material” additions or modifications to your credit files within 48 hours of the change, as well as provide you with free access to that file.
To sign up for this free service, visit each consumer reporting agencies websites below and enter your information:
- EQUIFAX
- TRANSUNION
- EXPERIAN
What to do if there is an inaccuracy in your credit report?
As with anything in life, often times things do not go as planned. If you find an inaccuracy on your credit report, it is important to dispute the incorrect information with the credit reporting agency. This is where we come in.
Free of charge, we will help you write and send a dispute letter to the credit reporting agency demanding that the credit reporting agency fix the inaccurate reporting.
By law, the credit reporting agencies are required to conduct a thorough investigation to determine the validity of the reported information; remove the information if it finds it to be inaccurate; and to notify you of the results of their investigation. All of which must be done within a set window of time.
Unfortunately, credit reporting agencies often do not remove or correct the inaccurate information. We have a legal team dedicated to fighting these credit reporting agencies in court on your behalf. Best of all, our team will do this all on a contingency fee basis, meaning that we do not get paid until you get paid.
