Common Mistakes in Credit Reports

Your accurate information is missing. Small, local creditors may not report to national bureaus. Or, your report could be a partial or fragmented report -- with some of your accurate information linked to one version of your name and address and some of your information only linked to a different version. Information about someone else is included: You could be a victim of identity theft or you could be a victim of a merged file, where the credit bureau has someone else's information mixed up with yours-- usually, it's someone with bad credit. Accurate information is reported twice, which makes it seem as if you have too much credit for your income: Your mortgage or student loan may have been sold or serviced to another lender, but appears twice. Your on-time payments are reported late or other problems in reporting (errors by your lenders) result in inaccuracies. False public record information appears (bankruptcies, court judgments, etc.). Credit bureaus and their hirelings often inadequately match public records before adding the info to credit reports. Some other John Smith filed for bankruptcy-- but it wasn't you. False public records create the worst negative marks on your report-- much worse than occasional late payments. Your trade line is incomplete because a credit card company refuses to report your credit limit. This causes the credit scoring computers to presume your current or highest ever balance is your limit, making your ratio of used to available credit appear worse than it is, lowering your credit score. (You appear maxed out when you are not, on this account.) Why would a company deceive other companies this way? So that you appear to be a worse risk than you actually are, making it more likely that you will remain a captive customer of your current company and less likely to be offered the credit you deserve. To obtain a copy of your Free Credit Report. You can check this every 12 months for free.