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Take Charge of Your Credit Report
Posted on 2015-12-09 08:00:25
In a perfect world everyone would have a completely accurate credit report. But, unfortunately, that is not the world we live in. The reality is that mistakes on credit reports happen rather frequently. The worst mistake may be the one you don’t know about, the one that could be causing you to pay high interest rates or larger down payments.
The bottom line is no one is more responsible for checking the accuracy of the information in your credit report than you. You are the one who will know if something on your credit report is inaccurate. You are the one who can take action to correct errors on your credit report.
How Information Gets on Your Credit Report The three major credit bureaus—Equifax, Experian and TransUnion--collect information from credit card companies, banks, landlords and other businesses and government agencies consumers deal with. They compile this information in individual credit reports, then sell the information to lenders and other entities to use to evaluate your creditworthiness. A lot of information is passed to the credit bureaus every day, and the potential for errors is high. How Inaccuracies Happen Most of the mistakes on a credit report could probably be traced back to human error. But sometimes the problem is identity theft or credit card fraud. Whether someone has stolen your credit card or merely obtained enough personal information about you to open new accounts, the information that is reported to the credit bureaus is accurate—it’s just not yours. Take Charge of Your Credit Report There is really no excuse for not knowing what is on your own credit report. You are the one who will recognize mistakes in your personal information. You are the one who can spot a new account that you didn’t open or fraudulent charges. If you check your credit report and find nothing amiss, congratulations! But don’t be foolish enough to think a mistake can’t show up tomorrow. MyFreeScoreNow’s credit monitoring service will keep daily tabs on your credit report and will alert you whenever there are significant changes you should personally verify. If you find mistakes, you can begin the process of disputing those items.Credit monitoring puts time on your side and gives you one less thing to think about as you go about the business of life. Give yourself the gift of credit monitoring in 2016.