Being refused credit based on items in your credit report is awful.
Finding those negative items are incorrect or not valid is even worse.
So where to start? While the credit industry takes steps to ensure accounts are reported accurately, mistakes happen.
When there are millions of accounts being reported to the Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA's) daily, there are going to be mistakes and it is up to you to stay on top of your credit report and be proactive on getting those mistakes fixed.
If you know you are going to be in the market for a purchase, don't wait until it is time to buy to review your credit.
Plan ahead.
I can't say this enough! More than 70% of credit histories contain errors.
The first step is to order your credit report.
Every consumer is entitled to receive one free report each year from each of the CRA's.
This means one from Transunion, one from Experian and one from Equifax.
It is important to understand that you do not get a credit score with the free report and you will pay approximately $8 per report to obtain the FAKO score.
However, for the purpose of checking for errors, these reports are sufficient.
You should really check your report very closely for any errors.
Look for incorrect balances, incorrect dates of late payments, incorrect dates the accounts were opened or closed.
The lenders are required to report all information accurately and if it not accurate to either fix it or delete the information.
Be prepared and ready to dispute these incorrect items.
Understand it takes time to do a dispute and by law, the CRA's have 30 days to respond to a dispute.
If you dispute based on the information found in the free credit report from annualcreditreport.
com, they have 45 days.
If you need items cleared from your credit report/history sooner, you should purchase a credit report from another source so they are held to the 30 day time limit to respond to your dispute.
If, in 30 days, they have been unable to verify the information you are disputing, they must remove it from your report.
You can obtain your free reports at http://www.
annualcreditreport.
com NO other site gives you a free credit report without joining a membership plan.
Be aware of similar names and make sure you are going to the correct site for your free report.
You can read this article: http://www.
comebackcredit.
com/my-fico-26-off-credit-report-and-fico-score/ for information on how to order a credit report with FICO score.
You do have to pay for this report and score but you can search for coupon codes and get the complete report for approximately $11.
Some choose to stagger the times they get their credit report and will chose to get one every 4 months.
This way they are reviewing their report every few months.
This can be a good strategy but remember that not all lenders report to all three CRA's and therefore they will not all be the same.
If you ever suspect fraud, it is very important to order all of your reports and review them immediately.