Successfully Disputing Errors On Your Credit Report
Posted June 15th, 2008 and last modified June 18th, 2011
Disputing errors in your credit report will help improve your credit history. When you find an error, make sure you have proof to back it up.
A credit report is a very important document for an individual as it is the basis by which a person can get future loans and his entire credit history is based on it. You need to know your credit score whenever you need to close a loan deal or renegotiate on the existing interest rate on credit cards.
The lenders generally judge your creditworthiness and charge you interest rate depending on your credit scores that generally range from 300 to 850. A vast majority of consumers ignore the credit rating reports and thus often fail to take corrective action against inaccurate data.Credit report dispute is by far the most common thing to happen. Error can happen all time or anytime as the agencies that prepares the credit report work on millions of customer data and play with number all time. Most of the great things in your life are simply based on the credit scores. If you are not vigilant enough to study your credit report, you might end up having a low credit score and thereby paying a higher rate of interest.
Being an Australian consumer, you are protected by the law called Fair Credit Reporting Act which states that if you dispute an error, then the erroneous information need to be removed from the report within 30 days. Again, reviewing credit reports can also help you to prevent the most happening crime of the cyber world known as identity thefts in which the identity is stolen and accounts are opened by fraudsters in your name. These get reflected in your credit report and thus by keeping a close check on the report you can actually prevent identity theft.
The first thing, as a consumer you need to do is to collect all the credit reports from the various agencies such as Equifax, Transunion and Experian. Study all the reports and spot the errors, as it might be possible that the errors in the reports are not same and can be multiple as well different errors in different reports.
After the review of the credit report, and finding the errors you need to draft a dispute letter to the credit reporting agencies. Need to collect all the relevant documents supporting the fact that there has been an error and keeping a copy of all relevant correspondences with you and then need to send across to all the credit rating bureaus.
During a credit rating dispute, the bureaus have a reasonable timeframe in which to investigate the case and delete the error from the report if found. Then the bureau would send necessary documents of rectification of credit report. This in turn, will boost your credit rating score northwards.
For serious credit dispute cases, credit repair lawyers who specialize in credit disputes can help to file cases on your behalf too.
It is thus of utmost importance to make a habit of reviewing your credit report to spot any inaccurate data or information at least once in every quarter.
If you have any errors on your credit file, it could make it difficult for you to attain credit in Australia. There are however a number of credit repair options available in Australia, that will help you overcome your bad credit rating, and put you in a situation where you are able to be apply and be accepted for:
- Credit Card Applications
- Home Loan Applications
- Personal Loan Applications
Image source: Alex E. Proimos
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