According to my wife’s credit report when we got together, she will be turning 100 years old on her next birthday. My step son had late payments to Sears when he was two years old. My friend, Jackie, had a $1 million dollar mortgage balance while her only income source was Social Security. These are just three of many examples of errors that I’ve uncovered on credit reports since helping family and friends secure and read credit reports over the past fifteen or so years.
One of the credit bureaus had my wife’s birth date recorded as 1919, a thirty six year difference. Errors are more common than people realize and yet under Federal Law, consumers are able to get their credit reports once each year from each of the three credit bureaus: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. Have YOU gotten yours this year?
My advice is to request one of these reports every four months but also to actually read the documents, challenge errors and follow up with them because in some cases a consumer’s credit score could be lowered as a result of a clerical errors as those noted above.
There are many apps and web sites out there to get your free credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies, however, they are not all without fine print.
The ONLY government authorized resource for credit reports is Annual Credit Report…
