Home Buddies – Home Ownership Coach – Houston, Texas

The Second Credit Secret of the Credit Bureaus – Inaccurate Scores

Did you know that that about 80% of credit reports have some type of errors in them? Different types of errors can have a huge impact on lowering your score. Not to mention that those errors can be making you pay more for the loans you are getting.

Some of these errors are as serious as some accounts not even belonging to you, or even false delinquencies.

Here are some common errors on credit reports:

41% of credit reports have the wrong personal demographic information which includes it being outdated, or misspelled.

20% of credit reports ARE MISSING MAJOR MORTGAGE LOAN INFORMATION. Also other loan information that proves you are credit worthy.

26% of credit reports have accounts that are listed incorrectly as open or “closed by credit grantor.” If your credit report shows an account that says “closed by grantor” it looks like you are the one who did something wrong, so it can lower your score.

Wow, so what are you supposed to do now? Get a copy of your credit report! Start looking through it completely. Yes, this means look at the identifying information like your name, address, date of birth, social security number, etc.

Be sure that you look at each and every one of the accounts that are listed from beginning to end. Make sure that all the information is reported correctly for the account. Especially the credit limits, current balances, date it was opened, date of the last activity, etc.

Don’t forget to pay attention to the inquiries section and see which companies have been looking at your credit report. If there are companies that you don’t remember applying for credit with you will need to contact those companies as soon as possible to make sure you have not become a victim of identity theft.

After you have completely reviewed your credit report, if you have found any errors at all, you do have a few options on how to correct those errors. You can remove them yourself with dispute letters to the appropriate creditors or credit bureaus, or hire a company to guide you with this, or you may even hire an attorney.

Next week I’ll tell you the third credit secret of the credit bureaus.

Barbara Partaka
Home Buddies