If you are working on practicing better financial planning these days, you may have gone online and checked your credit report. This is not a difficult thing to do, once you decide to make the plunge and take a realistic look at what the main credit bureaus are saying about your purchasing and repayment habits; in fact, you’ll have your results in mere minutes.
Why is it important to do this? The credit report is all about data and information, and you’d be surprised how often they can be wrong. It’s important first to make sure that the credit bureau has all your initial information correct, from your name and your address to your social security number or your marital status—and it’s important to make sure your finances are not still muddied up with that of an ex on your credit report.
You will also want to verify that any negative information on your credit report, as well as the reporting of any bankruptcies is not over seven years old. If the credit bureau somehow has the wrong dates and has not taken that information off your credit report, it’s time to contact them. This also goes for other information, and some that may even be fraudulent if someone used one of your accounts and made charges without your knowledge—or perhaps was even using your social security number instead of their own.
One would hope that clearing up errors on your credit report is as easy as making a phone call—and often, that is the case. You may have immediate luck both with calling the company who may have given out the wrong information about one of your accounts, as well as contacting the credit card bureau and letting them know what’s happening—and checking back. Be a squeaky wheel! If you don’t have luck with that, and quickly, the more traditional way to handle a dispute with a credit reporting bureau is to write to them, sending copies of evidence that show they are in error or reporting on an account over seven years old, and then again, doublechecking to see that everything is fixed. Remember that it is most important to make sure that the source of the misinformation is contacted, and that you keep up with seeing that they follow through on making changes. Most credit bureaus today will also allow you to file your dispute online, potentially creating a much faster process for cleaning up your credit report and ultimately, seeing that credit score go back up.
Are you having trouble clearing up a dispute with a credit bureau, or are you concerned about your level of credit card debt and resulting credit score? If your finances need an overhaul, an experienced attorney from Fitzgerald & Campbell, APLC can review your case and discuss all the available options with you. We are here to help you!
Call us today for a free consultation at (844) 431-3851, or email us at info@debtorprotectors.com.