It’s important to check the information on your credit report because everyone, including loan companies and credit card companies, make mistakes when reporting information to the credit bureau. Checking the information found in your credit report can help you ensure that you have the most up-to-date and most importantly ACCURATE information reflected there. It is also important because disputes can only be filed within a specific time frame. If you wait too long, you may not be able to correct the discrepancy and your dispute may simply be dismissed.
There are a number of things that show up on your credit report. This is why it is important to check your credit report data thoroughly and regularly. The law allows one free credit report each year to help people make sure the information is accurate. Since most people usually only have a few credit cards, loans, and maybe a mortgage or lease history, it’s usually easy to use this once to check that your details are correct. Errors are often made when updating data that already exists instead of data that is already in the report.
This is why it’s even more important to review your credit report when you make major changes like debt consolidation, new lines of credit, loans, mortgages, vehicles, or paying off a debt. You should do this as soon as possible to ensure that the debt is correctly marked as the correct type of debt, with the correct amounts. Depending on the debt, it will give the balance of the revolving debt and usually the monthly amount due on the installment debt. It’s generally a good idea to make sure this information is accurate, otherwise you may end up in a dispute or not be able to get a service you need because the data is not correct.
In addition to the ability to check credit report data annually for free, you can also get copies of your credit report each time you apply for credit or when a credit check is performed, such as when you go to rent a property or a car. This allows you to verify the data that was shown by the company that made the request. You can often catch bugs and errors this way as well. When you find a mistake, please make the dispute as soon as possible. You can do this with a phone call first, followed by a written letter. This allows your account to be flagged as inconsistent as soon as possible, but all disputes are generally in writing. The longer you wait, the less chance your dispute will be resolved quickly.
This is a particularly good idea to do before you make a major purchase, like a car or a mortgage. If there are incorrect errors on your credit report and then the lender runs a credit check on you, the damage is done. Instead, check and correct your credit report BEFORE applying for this major new purchase, which will save you a lot of heartache and hassle later.
Another reason to regularly check your credit report is to make sure you haven’t been a victim of identity theft, one of the fastest growing crimes of this century. If there’s an account on your credit report that you don’t recognize, be sure to find out what it is.
Check your credit report data frequently to make sure the data is up-to-date, accurate, and does not contain errors with balances, addresses, personal information, or account numbers. Make sure that payments have been accurately reported and that debts that have been consolidated or paid off are clearly marked. Credit companies and reporting agencies work with massive amounts of data, and it’s not hard to make mistakes. That’s why it’s up to you to review your report regularly to make sure the data in your report is accurate.