How to Fix an Error on Your Credit Report
According to research, 47 percent of Americans were victims of financial identity theft in 2020. Losses from identity theft cases cost $502.5 billion in 2019 and increased 42 percent to $712.4 billion in 2020. The group explains that the huge increase was fueled by the high rate of unemployment identity theft during the pandemic, as increased and extended unemployment benefits made the sector an attractive target for fraudsters. As for 2021, losses are forecast to increase again to $721.3 billion. In the past two years alone, 37 percent of consumers have been victims of application fraud, and 38 percent experienced account takeovers.
This makes it that much more important to protect your online information. But what do you do if you find yourself one of those statistics? How do you correct it with the credit bureaus?
Firstly, you can access your credit information on a number of services like experian.com and freecreditreport.com but those usually only show a portion of the full report and have upsold options within their platforms. You can get your full, free annual report at AnnualCredit-Report.com — this is where you can see three credit reports from the three different credit bureaus.
William Campbell Senior Vice President at David Lerner Associates says, “One thing to keep in mind is that your credit report is different from your credit score.” Your credit report is a record of your debit history. It contains information about your credit history and the status of your credit accounts. Your credit score is a numerical value calculated from information that’s found in your credit file. It’s used to predict your creditworthiness — how likely you are to do things like repay a loan or make payments on time and is used when applying for any new credit accounts like a mortgage or a car loan.
Once you have access to your credit report, you should look at things that can indicate identity theft, such as an address you’ve never lived at. As far as inquiries on your report, they’re less of a concern than information that isn’t correct and shouldn’t be on there. Of course, you can refute any fraudulent attempts to open accounts in your name, and the financial institutions will be listed on the inquiries and attempts to open accounts.
On annualcreditreport.com you will see a button where you can dispute these things. If you don’t see it, then click on the actual item itself. Delve in a little bit deeper and it should pop up. All the bureaus have a way for you to dispute it online. If all else fails, you can contact each bureau separately and dispute the attempt with them.
The Federal Trade Commission released a report saying that 42 million consumers have at least one “potentially material error” in their credit reports. [2] What do you do if you find yourself in that situation? Well, most people don’t need to hire the help of credit-fixing firms to correct these things. A lot of the errors are fairly minor and you can take care of them yourself.
And if there are multiple attempts and even worse, successful attempts to open accounts in your name, then you might consider filing a police report for identity theft and contacting any relevant financial institutions where those accounts are being held to close them immediately. Next, you should contact the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) immediately and put a Fraud Alert and a Freeze on your credit and your Social Security number so that no further damage can be done.
Resources:
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
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