Numerous credit consumers have to face rejection from financial institutions owing to credit errors which were not caused by them. It is therefore important to repair your credit report and improve your score as soon as possible.

Alison had a credit card with a credit institution. Although Alison had been very regular with her payments, owing to a system error, her payments were not recorded and were being credited to another account. Her account showed defaults for over two and half months. Alison was completely unaware of this, till she applied for a mortgage. Her application was rejected owing to her repayment history.

She eventually took this up with her credit card company and had the issue resolved, but was unaware that the credit card company had not informed the credit bureau and these listings stay on your report for a five year period.

Credit Report Error Examples

Alison’s credit report error story is not an isolated one. Some common examples of credit errors are:

• Payments not credited to your accounts.
• Default interest wrongly charged to your accounts.
• Incorrect account set-ups there by causing payments to come out early and placing your account in arrears.
• You do not have any dealings with the lender listed.
• The listing on your credit report was over 5 years ago.
• The same credit default has been recorded multiple times.
• The debt default listed had nothing to do with you and you have not acquired the debt.

These are just some examples of the kind of credit errors that may creep into your credit report.

Improve Your Score with Correct Information

In addition to the five elements such as payment history, balances owed, new credit applied for, types of credit and length of credit history, your credit report also records the following:

1.       Your name (including previously used names)

2.       Your address (including previous addresses)

3.       Court judgments.

4.       Dishonored cheques.

5.       Bankruptcy orders etc.

To improve your score the first thing you must do is ensure all the information on your credit report is absolutely accurate. Also it is important to know what is included in your score and which companies report to credit bureaus before you wage a battle with creditors and credit bureaus because sometimes what might seem like a credit error to you might actually be a rent default you had forgotten about.

Credit Report Repair – Get Rid of a Credit Error

The next issue is to solve any credit report errors that might have occurred on your score. Follow some of the steps below to improve your score and repair your credit report.

• Obtain a copy of your credit report regularly (as often as six months if need be) to ensure that no unwanted listings and credit errors have occurred.
• In the event that there is a listing that has wrongly appeared on your credit report, get in touch with your credit provider disputing the credit error and question the credit report error immediately.
• In certain cases the credit provider might have an external resolution system and in that case you might to file a credit error complaint with them to improve your score.
• Finally if none of the other avenues work, talk to the appropriate credit bureau and raise the issue with them by lodging a formal complaint about credit report errors and how it is affecting your score.
• The Federal Trade Commission regularly handles complaints about credit errors so you could complain to them to restore your score.
• Be prepared to fight a legal battle if necessary. This is your credit report and you should not take credit errors lying down. If a creditor will not fix a credit report error, inform them you are willing to hand over the matter for your solicitors to manage.
• If you are unable to repair your credit report alone, seek advice from a credit repair company but be careful as there are several scams out there.