Your credit score: What you need to know
A proactive approach to monitoring your credit reports and credit score is critical to protecting this important information, says James P. Nehf, professor at the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
Here are four tips from Nehf on obtaining free credit reports from the three major reporting agencies:
1. Take advantage of free credit reports offered from three reporting companies:
"A smart thing to do is to request one free report from each of the three every four months. That way you get your one-per-year from each of the three and you are monitoring your credit every four months."
2. When you receive a copy of your credit report:
"Go through them carefully and see if anything in there strikes you as odd, information that is in there that you think is incorrect or puzzling or is inappropriate to be in there."
3. If you find an error:
"Contact the credit bureau that has that information in there and dispute it. Ask them to remove it or to clarify it. But you are better off asking them to remove it or justify why it's in there ... Include as many of your records as you can that seem relevant. Put it in writing. Follow their procedures for lodging a dispute and keep records. Because if they do not follow the law and correct incorrect information you are going to want to be able to prove that you gave them all of the information that they needed and they did not follow the law."
4. If you get information corrected:
"Ask the bureau to notify the other reporting bureaus, but don't assume that it is going to be corrected in all of the credit bureaus' records ... If it's something that is important and it is incorrect, the prudent thing to do is follow it up with the others, even if you have to pay for the credit report ... You are going to want to check with those others to see if the same mistake is in there and, if it is, you are going to have to file a dispute with them to get it corrected in their records."
Tim Evans is the Star's consumer advocate. Call him at (317) 444-6204 and follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.
More help
More information on credit scores can be found here.
About your credit report and score:
Your credit report is based on the bill payments you have missed or been late paying, loans that you have paid off, plus your current amount of debt.
A credit report contains information on where you work and live, how you pay your bills, and whether you've been sued, arrested, or filed for bankruptcy. Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRAs) gather this information and sell it to creditors, employers, insurers and others. The most common type of CRA is the credit bureau.
The three major national credit bureaus are:
- Equifax, 1-800-685-1111
- Fraud Hotline: 1-888-766-0008
- Experian, 1-888-397-3742
- Fraud Hotline: 1-888-397-3742
- TransUnion, 1-800-916-8800
- Fraud Hotline: 1-800-680-7289
Learn more about how to request your free credit report online or by calling (877) 322-8228.
Learn more here about how to dispute information on your credit report.
Source: USA.gov