Your credit report is a very detailed depiction of your credit history that is used to determine your credit score. Consequently, your credit report may become very important when you are ready to make larger purchases (like, for example, when you are ready to buy a home or a car). While you want to be able to trust that the information on your credit report is accurate, unfortunately, it’s all too common that minor to serious mistakes pop up on people’s credit reports and that these errors end up negatively impacting their credit scores.
About 25 percent of all credit reports contain at least one mistake. Here’s a look at some of the most common credit report mistakes to beware of.
In fact, according to research conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), about 1 in 4 people’s credit reports have some type of errors on them. Because spotting and fixing these errors is usually up to the consumer, make sure that:
- You regularly check your credit report. Financial experts recommend that people carefully review their credit reports at least once every year (or, better yet, once every six or so months).
- You know what some of the most common errors are so you know what to look for.
In this two-part blog, we will discuss the four most prevalent credit report mistakes that people should beware of.
Credit Report Mistake 1: Personal information errors.
The first thing to look at when you review your credit report is the personal information. Make sure the following information about you is correct:
- Your name – Your full legal name, correctly spelled, should be on your credit report. If there are mistakes with your name, this can lead to information from other people with similar names being incorrectly listed on your credit report and, in the worst cases, impacting your credit score.
- Your address – If there is an old address listed on your credit report or there are any errors regarding your address (like, for instance, the wrong apartment number listed here), this could create problems in that your credit information may end up being sent to the wrong locations. While this may mean that you don’t ever receive important information regarding your credit or your credit report, it could also end up putting potentially sensitive credit information in the hands of people who may misuse it to exploit you.
- Your marital status and any other personal information listed on the report – Any other mistakes regarding your personal information can end up having minor to significant effects when it comes to your credit, so take care review this information thoroughly to figure out if there may be any other errors that need to be fixed.
Be sure to look for the upcoming second part of this blog for our continued discussion regarding common credit report mistakes you should look for when you regularly check your credit report.
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