There is Something Wrong With my Credit Score

After much thought about your credit score, you have decided to pull your free yearly credit report to see how things are going. When you receive it and get to the part that spells out your credit score, you are totally amazed and wonder how it can possibly be so low. You only did made a few mistakes here and there, it can’t possibly amount to such a hit on your credit score. It is only when you start to detail the report from start to finish that you realize there are actually a few items which you can’t account for. These negative points should not be there and is dragging down your credit score.

There are actually thousands of Americans walking around with mistakes in their credit score and they not knowing anything about it. Borrowers, employers and even city municipalities make use of credit reports held by these credit bureaus to make decisions that can affect your day-to-day life. It would simply by very irresponsible to not worry about your credit score and leave it be especially when the influence of credit reports are expanding into areas which were previously not the norm to have credit reports pulled for customer evaluation.

The regulation that governs the error disputing and proper credit reporting is the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). It promotes the accuracy of information that is provided to the credit bureaus and also promotes the accuracy of reporting from the credit bureau to the credit report user. Under the laws of the FCRA, everyone along the line of information from the information furnisher even to the user of the information has a part to play in reading the information correctly.

If you find that there are errors in your credit report then you must take action to correct it. The very first thing to do is to get in contact with the consumer reporting company, preferably in writing and tell them of the inaccurate listing. You should attach copies of documents that support your claim and also provide any other dispute information that might be beneficial to your case. It is best that you ca provide dated copies of whatever piece of financial information that can be used to correct the listing. It is important that you also keep a paper trail on the item that you send. You must sent your mails using certified mail with return receipt requested, you must also keep copies of all the letters and documentation that you send the credit bureau.

It is the legal requirement for credit bureaus to investigate every report that they receive about erroneous credit report information within 30 days of receiving the report. It is also their requirement to forward all the information that you provided to the party that was involved in making the negative credit entry in the first place. It is then the legal requirement for the party that issued the negative credit entry to investigate the claim. The investigation has to go through certain guidelines as stated by the FCRA. If the claim is correct the it is the responsibility of the party that originally issues the negative rating to inform all the 3 major credit bureaus at their own cost.

When the whole process of investigation and correction is complete, the credit bureau is legally required to give you a summary of the dispute and also another copy of the free credit report that you can keep for you records. Once an item is removed from the credit report, that same item or anything with regard to that transaction can never again be allowed into the credit report. If you request, it is even the responsibility of the credit bureau to issue correction notices to anyone who received your credit report in the last 6 months, it is illegal to turn-down a notice request. If however the disputes end in a result that isn’t in your favor then you can even ask the credit bureaus to make a note of the dispute on the credit report item and that all relevant documentation to back up the dispute be sent to anyone who requests the credit report. This is an additional service that most credit bureaus have that you will have to pay money for.

Even with negative credit information on your record that you can’t get rid off, it will eventually be deleted over the passage of time. The credit bureaus can only keep standard negative credit items on your credit report for 7 years. All bankruptcy information can only last 10 years. Any negative judgment made on you by the courts can only last for 7 years or until the statute of limitations run out. You however cannot run away from any criminal convictions as it will stay with you and even be listed on your credit report for life.

If you have already filed your credit report dispute form and are being jerked around by either the credit bureaus or the party that put in the negative listing then you can file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). They will investigate the issue and can ask as the force to push these reporting agencies into gear. Often times if you simply mention that you have initiated the complaints process with the FTC, you will more often than not get a very favorable results in the quickest of times.