Maintaining an Accurate Credit Report

Credit reports are used by financial institutions for assessing your creditability when you apply for mortgage loans, personal loans, or credit cards. Maintaining a clear credit report has thus become very essential and can be achieved by following a few simple steps.

Credit report agencies in the US

To make sure that your credit report does not contain any errors, you need to check it periodically and understand what is given in the report. To get a credit report, you can contact any of the main three credit reporting agencies namely, Equifax, Trans Union and Experian. Credit reports generated by these agencies differ slightly as each of these agencies use different methods for calculating credit scores. Some of the common entries found in most credit reports include the name of the individual, past and present address, social security number, details about open and active accounts, recently closed accounts, and the number of hard and soft enquiries made.

Free credit reports are provided by each of the three agencies

As per credit report law, you are entitled to get a credit report for free, once every year from each of these credit reporting agencies. This means that you need to plan in a proper manner to get a credit report for free, every four months. However, in case you are planning to apply for a loan, it is better to check all the three reports for accuracy at the same time.

If you have used up your credit report that was available for free, you can opt for paid reporting services offered by these agencies. In some cases, it may be necessary to get a credit report available for a fee as it contains more information as compared to a free credit report. Paid credit reports contain information about the reasons, both positive and negative that may be affecting your credit score.

Getting a mortgage loan may become difficult if you have faced credit related problems in the past and if these are reported in your credit report. Any negative reference such as bankruptcy and criminal proceedings remain in the reports for seven years. Make sure that such references are not mistakenly added in your credit report as these can put a red flag on your file and may prevent you from getting a mortgage loan.

Dealing with customer complaints

If you notice some irregularities in the report, you must immediately contact your credit report agency and ask them to fix the problem. If you suspect a fraud, your agency will attach a fraud alert on your credit report. This will not affect your chances of getting a loan as it is only for informing the bank that there has been suspicious activity. Credit report agencies will themselves check on the information provided by you and take the necessary steps to clear the inaccuracies. For simplifying matters and speeding up the loan approval process, you can contact the bank itself to clear any problematic issues. Errors that are cleared by the bank automatically get included in your credit report within a few weeks.

It is advisable to file your complaints in writing and provide your ID and other important documents that may be required. All the three credit reporting agencies operate their own websites where you can file your complaints. You can also file complaints or make enquiries via phone.