Correcting Your Credit Reports

What you should know:

By law, both the credit bureaus and the information providers—the credit grantors who give them information about you—are responsible for correcting inaccuracies on your credit report. To make sure this really happens, attack on both fronts: contact the credit bureaus and the information providers.

What you should do:
First call each of the three credit bureaus, and follow up in writing. Your letter should be detailed and specific: identify each item you are disputing by the name of the company and the type of account; for each explain why you are disputing it, and ask that it be corrected or deleted. Include any supporting documentation that you have, such as the Identity Theft Affidavit and police report. If you already have documents from the credit grantor agreeing that the charge or account is fraudulent, you definitely want to include copies.

What they have to do:
The credit bureau gets 30-45 days to investigate your case. (If they think it’s frivolous and aren’t going to bother with it, they have to let you know within five days.) The credit bureau then sends you a written report of the outcome. If the information provider—the store or bank where the fraud occurred—determines that your claim is true and the items you are disputing are in fact incorrect, they are responsible for notifying all the credit bureaus they work with. The credit bureaus must, by law, correct or delete all the inaccurate information, including all fraudulent accounts and charges, and any fraudulent inquiries.

What you should do then:
Make sure everyone knows! If you ask, the credit bureaus must send corrected copies of your report to any business who has received it in the last 6 months, and to any employers who’ve had a peek in the last two years. If there are still problems with your credit report, you can ask to have a statement added to it to explain your side of the story.

Big Bad Credit Reports

Credit bureaus or credit reporting agencies are in the business of being nosy about how quickly and reliably you pay your bills.

Although the name “credit bureau” sounds somewhat official, these agencies aren’t non profit organizations or goverment bureaus.

They’re in it for the dough, just like everyone else. Credit bureaus make their money by selling the information on your credit report to businesses such as banks, savings and loans, credit unions, finance companies, and retailers—who use the info to decide whether they want to issue you credit.