{"id":130,"date":"2022-03-05T02:02:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-05T07:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/how-find-mistakes-your-credit-report-2\/"},"modified":"2023-03-20T07:12:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T11:12:05","slug":"how-to-find-mistakes-on-your-credit-report","status":"publish","type":"resource","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/how-to-find-mistakes-on-your-credit-report\/","title":{"rendered":"How to find mistakes on your credit report"},"featured_media":11436,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[157],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"resource_type":[67],"region_tax":[],"state":[5,7,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,2,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"topic_tax":[124],"class_list":["post-130","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[124],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":67,"event_type":false,"campaigns":157,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[5,7,9,12,13,16,18,23,24,25,28,2,32,33,34,36,38,40,41,42,46,50,52],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":124}},"subtitle":"","excerpt":"Incorrect personal information can affect your ability to access your credit report or get your identity confirmed with government agencies if, for example, you\u2019re trying to file an income tax return or access your Social Security account online.","featured_image":11436,"caption_override":"","updated_on":"20230301","sidebar_action":"","related_event":"","hide_hero_image":false,"location":"internal","external_link":{"publication_name":"","url":""},"file":null,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":[{"type":"dynamic","dynamic_person":{"site":77,"people":"1814"},"information":{"name":"","image":null,"role":"","biography":"","contact":{"twitter":"","facebook":"","email":"","phone":""}}}]},"helper_downloads":{"title":"Downloads","files":null},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"One of the most common complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) every year involves incorrect information on people\u2019s credit reports.\r\n\r\nCredit report errors are not unusual. A recent\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.consumerreports.org\/credit-scores-reports\/consumers-found-errors-in-their-credit-reports-a6996937910\/\">investigation by Consumer Reports<\/a>\u00a0found that one in three Americans who participated in the study discovered at least one mistake on their credit report. About 29 percent found mistakes in their personal information, while 11 percent discovered erroneous information about accounts.\r\n<h4><strong>Mistakes on your credit report can cause a whole host of problems<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nIncorrect personal information can affect your ability to access your credit report or get your identity confirmed with government agencies if, for example, you\u2019re trying to file an income tax return or access your Social Security account online.\r\n\r\nErrors involving accounts or public records can hurt your ability to qualify for a loan or credit card, can increase the interest rates you pay or affect your premiums on auto or homeowners\u2019 insurance policies.\r\n\r\nMistakes involving public records can also affect lending decisions and could potentially cost you a job offer if, for example, your credit report shows a bankruptcy or tax lien that isn\u2019t yours.\r\n<h4><strong>It\u2019s easy and free to get copies of your credit reports:<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nYou should go to <a href=\"http:\/\/annualcreditreport.com\/\">AnnualCreditReport.com<\/a>\u00a0and you can request all three reports there \u2013 from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. Or you can call\u00a01-877-322-8228.\r\n\r\nYou will have to provide personal information including your Social Security number. For the rest of 2023, you can get a free credit report every week from each of the three bureaus. This was started in 2020 under COVID to help people learn whether payment extensions granted by banks were being honored or reported as late on credit reports. The free-report-a-week arrangement has been extended until Dec. 31, 2023. After that, you can request a copy from each bureau at no charge once a year.\r\n\r\n<strong>IMPORTANT TIP<\/strong>: Do not go directly to the bureaus\u2019 web sites; the reports won\u2019t be free and you may mistakenly sign up for paid products, such as identity theft monitoring.\r\n\r\nYour credit report may be a dozen pages or more. If you have never seen a copy of your credit report, or if it\u2019s been a long time, here\u2019s a roadmap of the places to look for the most common mistakes that will hurt you or could signal a problem.\r\n<h4><strong>Where to look for mistakes:<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Your biographical information.<\/strong>\u00a0Make sure your name is spelled correctly and your address, date of birth and other information is correct. My husband checks his credit report regularly. Only on his most recent check did he find Experian had a second Social Security number listed, with the last digit incorrect. It was probably a data entry error, but still needed to be disputed.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Alternative spellings of your name.<\/strong>\u00a0Does your report show other names used or incorrect spellings of your name in addition to the correct one? This could be a sign your name was used by someone else, or someone else\u2019s information incorrectly ended up on your file.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Your address history.<\/strong>\u00a0Does it show any incorrect addresses? Maybe addresses that belong to a relative? This also could mean that someone else\u2019s information is on your file. You\u2019ll need to go through each account listing carefully.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Your credit accounts.<\/strong> Do you recognize all of the open or current accounts? If not, you could be a victim of identity theft.\r\nKeep in mind, though, that you may not recognize an account if the name of the bank is abbreviated oddly or if your account was sold to another bank.\r\nFor example, a Home Depot credit card may be abbreviated on your credit report as THD\/CBNA. THD stands for The Home Depot. CBNA stands for Citibank North America.\r\nAnd people who have a GM Card which may have been through Capital One may not find it\u2019s been transferred to Marcus under Goldman Sachs.\r\n<em>Note: If you see one credit card listed several times, it\u2019s not necessarily a mistake, as long as all but one are listed as closed accounts. This could just represent times when your account number changed.<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Payment history.<\/strong>\u00a0Do any of your current or past accounts show any ate payments that weren\u2019t late? This affects your credit score and potentially, lending decisions and interest rates.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Current balances.<\/strong>\u00a0Credit scores depend significantly on the proportion of your credit limit you\u2019re using. It\u2019s best to have \u201ccredit in use\u201d ratios of 25 percent or less. The balances are generally as of your last statement. You\u2019re looking primarily for balances that seem way off or that you paid off long ago.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Inquiries.<\/strong>\u00a0Your credit report will show \u201chard inquiries\u201d involving actual applications for new loans or credit cards. And it will show \u201csoft inquiries\u201d or \u201caccount review\u201d inquiries involving existing accounts. You should pay most attention to the hard inquiries: These affect your credit score. Are there inquiries on there you don\u2019t recognize? And an erroneous inquiry could signal fraud.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Public records, such as lawsuits or liens.<\/strong>\u00a0Public record entries hurt your credit score and your credit report. The entries usually come from court records: bankruptcies and civil suits seeking money owed. Credit reports used to show tax liens and judgments, but generally don\u2019t any more, even if they exist. That could change in the future.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>","":null}}],"site_specific_content":""},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to find mistakes on your credit report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Incorrect personal information can affect your ability to access your credit report or get your identity confirmed with government agencies if, for example, you\u2019re trying to file an income tax return or access your Social Security account online.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/georgia\/edfund\/resources\/how-to-find-mistakes-on-your-credit-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to find mistakes on 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