Legal Recourse Against Credit Reporting Errors

Article by Michael Forbes

By law, credit reporting agencies are expected to keep information on your credit report accurate. When you have followed every avenue to correct an inaccuracy and a credit reporting agency fails to remove the wrong information, you have legal recourse against them.

In the United States, having a good credit standing is a vital and necessary tool to everyday living. Your credit score has a direct impact on so many aspects of your life. Such aspects include your ability to obtain a loan for a car or motorcycle, your ability to get approved for a home loan, or an equity line of credit, your ability to get an affordable automotive insurance rate, a store credit card, a small personal loan and of your standard course credit cards.

In fact, your credit score also affects whether or not you can get an apartment or rent a home. These days many employers even consider your credit score when deciding whether or not to hire you. Meaning, a bad credit score can even affect your ability to get a good job, and thus your overall livelihood. Some people might not take their credit score that seriously, but it is serious. It’s your responsibility as the consumer to check your credit report on a periodic basis in order to determine if there are any inaccuracies being reported, which in turn could directly affect your overall credit rating.

In the U.S. we use three major credit reporting agencies: Transunion, Experian and Equifax. Although these three reporting agencies format their reports differently, each of the credit reports contains the same basic information. Each agency report contains your personal identifying information about where you live, if you pay your bills on time, if you have ever filed for bankruptcy, if a lawsuit has ever been filed against you and if you have been arrested.

The credit reporting agencies sell your private information in your credit report to creditors, insurers, employers and other entities who want to evaluate your credit report in order to make a decision about loaning you money, insuring you, hiring you, or allowing you to rent an apartment or home. Since so much hinges on the accuracy of your credit report, it’s absolutely critical to ensure that the information contained within your credit report is accurate.

The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was created to promote the accuracy of information reported. Both creditors and the reporting agencies have a responsibility to ensure the accuracy of the information they report on a person’s credit. When there is an inaccuracy in a report it can result in denied credit. This can be extremely inconvenient if you are in need of a new automobile, a small loan, or even if you want to purchase a home.

In a 2004 study conducted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, 80% of the reports in the study contained inaccuracies and 25% of those errors had inaccuracies which could trigger a denial of credit. There are steps that a consumer must take in order to request that such inaccuracies be removed. The first step is first obtaining a copy of the report. If after you have exhausted all of your attempts to get an error removed and agency continues to report the erroneous information, then you may have legal recourse against them.

By law, when there is inaccurate information on your report, the reporting agency is required to remove it. If the reporting agency fails to remove the incorrect information, then you can sue them for damages. To learn more about your legal options, please contact a Philadelphia debt collector attorney for more information.

Michael P. Forbes is a Philadelphia debt collector attorney. As a seasoned lawyer, he is closely familiar with various federal laws that are aimed at protecting the consumer and the debtor from unfair practices. Whether a credit reporting agency has violated a provision of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), or if you are a victim of debt collector abuse and they have violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), he is well-versed in all forms of state and federal laws that are designed to protect you. His firm offers a broad range of services including foreclosure defense, credit card lawsuits, debt collector abuse, zombie debts and much more. To learn more about how Mr. Forbes can help you, please contact a Philadelphia debt collector attorney by calling (610) 991-3321 or you can visit the firm’s website at http://www.mforbeslaw.com.










Credit Repair Tips – Disputing Credit Report Errors

Article by Jeff Ragan

As you no doubt realize, your credit report contains a great deal of personal information about you. For example it has a history of your addresses over the past several years, if you pay your bills on time, any lawsuits you may have been involved in, arrests and if you have filed bankruptcy in the past. All of this information is collected and then sold by the 3 major credit companies to many different places if you allow it and they make the request. If any of this information is incorrect, you may need to use the credit repair tips – disputing credit report errors.

One of my first credit repair tips in this article is, do not authorize people or companies to pull your credit report unless you have very good reason for doing so. If you are applying for credit, this is a good reason. This would include things like opening a credit card account applying for an auto loan or mortgage etc. The information is needed for your creditor to make a decision and determine your interest rate.

Now-a-days you have to allow insurance companies to see your report before they give you a quote on auto insurance. How your credit score affects the way we drive is something I will never understand.

Let me tell you a little story. When I bought a house, my auto insurance went up on the next renewal period. Then…….. sorry, I got off topic. Ask me some time, I have a great experience on this one.

You need to be sure that whatever is on your report is 100% accurate. In the past, when I was in the mortgage business I saw hundreds of credit reports. I was shocked at how many mistakes they had on them.

Many times I found myself helping the customer get the mistakes corrected just so they could apply for a mortgage. It was a long drawn out process sometimes I must say.

So what if you get your free report and find mistakes on it?? You need to dispute these errors right away. The process of disputing errors is somewhat easy if you know how to do it.

Disputing and Correcting the Errors

First off, you need to know that under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) the reporting company and the information provider both have to be sure that everything is 100% correct. So let’s look at it this way for just a moment.

Let’s suppose you are the bank that gave you a mortgage. If the bank finds that you are making all of your payments on time and then reports to the credit reporting company that you missed a single payment, is that right?? Not really because you have made every payment and all of them have been on time.

You would need to get that error corrected since it will shows up on your report and cost you some points in your score. Let’s take this a step further, suppose the bank reports that you were always late on your payments. Now some people do not realize it but if you go past 30 days late, each time you do this it is reported to these reporting companies.

So if you know and can prove you have made all of your payments and have never been late, you want this corrected right away. When offering people credit repair tips, I urge everyone to not fall into the trap of thinking a grace period as something you should be using. A grace period is for the occasional time you may be a few days late, it is not a new due date for your payment. I know some people who use this falsely think it does not affect their credit. It does!

Once you get your free copy of your report and you find errors, there is a process you need to follow. Under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) you can insist on errors being corrected since this is a poor reflection on you.

Normally it is the information provider (like the example of the bank above) that causes the error. These companies are only reporting what the providers tell them. However they have an obligation to help you get things corrected if there are errors.

Credit Repair Tips – Getting Started Disputing Errors

You need to write a letter to these credit bureaus about what you feel is not accurate on your credit report. Along with this letter you need to include copies (do not send originals) to back up what you are claiming to be the mistake. This gives proof that it is a mistake. Examples of this might be canceled checks, money order receipts, etc.

After providing your full name and current address you should make it clear what items on the report you are disputing. If there’s more than one mistake, spell them out one by one. You need to state all the facts and explain clearly why you have a dispute about the information. Then request that they remove it.

It’s a good practice to include a copy of your report and highlight or circle the item(s) in dispute. Be sure and send your letter by certified mail with a “return receipt requested” since it’s amazing how people claim “it must have gotten lost in the mail”. I’m sure you know what I mean here.

By sending your letter this way, you have proof of where it went and what companies you sent them too. You want to keep a separate file for each of the 3 credit bureaus you send them to. In each file be sure to keep a copy of the dispute letter and the proof you sent them. This way if you end up talking on the phone with them, you will be looking at the same thing they are.

Credit Repair Tips – What Happens Now

Because of FCRA, the credit bureaus have to investigate the items you are questioning. This has to be done within 30 days unless they think your dispute is not valid. That’s why the copies of proof is advisable.

They will forward your information to the provider who appears to have made the mistake. This causes the information provider to have to look into it and try to figure out what went wrong. After their research, if they find an error on their part, they must provide the corrected information to all 3 credit bureaus so your credit report is accurate. Even if there is no error they still must report it to the credit bureaus and explain their position why they feel the disputed item is correct.

Credit Repair Tips – Now What?

The credit bureaus now have to provide you an updated report (free of charge) that shows the corrections have been made. Once a disputed item is removed from your credit report, the bureaus cannot put it on your report again. For this reason you want to be sure that at least once a year you take a look at your report. The first time you do this may be a little more work depending how many disputes you may find. It is well worth the time and effort since your credit score is affected and can cost you thousands of dollars in higher interest rates on car loans, mortgages and so much more.

Now I know I got a little long-winded here, but I really want you the consumer to know your rights under this Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and to use them to your advantage by using these credit repair tips.

Jeffrey Ragan has several years of experience helping people reach their goals and wants to help you learn more credit repair tips and other helpful information on their website, First-Time-Home-Buyer-Solutions.com.










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