Here’s an eye-opening statistic: one in four adults in the United States have errors on their credit report serious enough to cause loan applications to be denied.
These are ERRORS, not stupid credit decisions. And they’re almost impossible to fix. But you can fix them. Here are some of the things you must do.
First, get a copy of your credit report and go through it carefully. You can get a free copy once every year through the U.S. government. There are three major credit-reporting bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) and you should get a credit report from each one and check them all. To get this report, go to www.annualcreditreport.com. Do NOT use free credit reports from other companies; they use free reports to lure you into purchasing other services that you are unlikely to need.
Once you have your report, mark any mistakes or oversights that act against you. But know what you’re doing; you might be surprised at what can act against you. For instance, if you have a large number of open credit card accounts that are paid off, you might be seen as a risk because you have the freedom to go out and charge up all those credit cards at any given moment.
Next, psyche yourself up. You may be forced to sue to have mistakes corrected, and you should approach your credit report in this frame of mind.
Write everything down: dates and times of calls, what was discussed, what was decided, and the names and other pertinent details about the credit company’s customer service representative(s). Pin the CSR into giving you a date by when your credit error should be correct.
Never lose your temper. If you’re getting upset enough to start losing it, you might want to cut the call short and try again later with a different representative.
Don’t take “I don’t know” as an answer. If your CSR seems to be unhelpful for any reason, ask to speak with his or her supervisor. And continue going up the chain of supervisors from that point on. Eventually you’re going to find someone who can give you a solid answer.
You may need to contact the company who reported false information — or didn’t report good information — to the credit bureau. By law, the credit bureau must make the corrections on your credit report, but they don’t always take your word for corrections and often won’t bother contacting the company supplying information for the correction. If this company agrees to correct your information, ask them to send you a copy of the UDF (Universal Data Form) that they are submitting to the credit bureau.
Round Two: Getting Serious
Sometimes just a phone call or two takes care of the problem. But often you need to go further. This is why you must write everything down in the first round.
If calling the credit companies has not produced results within a month, write everything down and send them a certified letter. This gives you a date in writing when the credit bureau received your information. Address your letter to a real person, preferably the customer service representative you’ve been working with the most.
After you receive your receipt back from your certified letter, call the credit bureau again. Ask the customer service representative you speak to about the certified letter to ensure that its information was recorded properly. And then find out what they’re going to do for you. If you have to send more letters, start sending them to more people; one professional suggests doubling the number of recipients with each letter sent. And don’t send them to CSRs; send them to managers and executives. Eventually someone should listen.
If they still aren’t helpful, there are things you can do short of an expensive lawsuit. Hiring a credit repair company, while costing you money, may be a better way to resolve your problem.
Public embarrassment works wonders. You can talk about the case on a website, naming names; detail everything, and rant to your heart’s content, as long as what you say is true and accurate. You can also call a reporter; often their human-interest desk is interested in helping people resolve problems like this. Finally, you can write to the FTC and ask for help. They are very interested in straightening out credit problems, and will help you as much as they can.
If none of this works, then it may be time to go talk to a lawyer.