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Credit Bureaus Hold the Key to Your Financial Future

Guest post by: Kristin Thayer

Article Overview: You've taken the initiative to check your credit and find you have an error, or multiple errors being reported to the 3 major bureaus. What do you do now?

Credit Bureaus Hold the Key to Your Financial Future

It is not uncommon to find errors on your Credit Reports, which is why it is so important to keep a good eye on your credit.

How do these errors occur? There are many reasons for inaccurate reporting. One of the common errors that we see comes from an outstanding account that you may have had that was sold to a collection company.

The debt was sold to a collection company but they may not have been told that you actually paid the bill to the original creditor after the fact. So the collection agency may still be reporting the debt as having an outstanding balance.

We have also found that when you are a Senior, Junior or III, etc., your credit report may get mixed up with the family member who has the same name as you. Even though you have different social security numbers, your reports can still get mixed together and if the person with the same name has bad credit, you may too!

So how do you fix these errors when you find them? You could hire an attorney if you feel the need is there or if you just don't want to deal with it. But a cheaper alternative is available to you.

You can write a letter to the 3 Credit Bureaus, Trans Union, Experian & Equifax. List your full name, your date of birth and your social security number in the letter. The letter can be quite simple where you just list the items that you are disputing.

Be sure to include account numbers if you have them (they are often listed on the Credit Reports, although it may be a partial account number) and definitely include a copy of the payment if you have it available. If you do not have the proof of the payment, send the letter anyway.

What will happen is the Credit Bureaus will receive your dispute letters and they have to contact each creditor who is listed in your letter to find out if you have indeed paid the bill. If the creditor agrees, the negative item will be removed from your report. If they do not agree, they will deny the dispute.

You should receive a letter back from the Credit Bureaus within 30-45 days. They will either send you a letter stating that they are waiting to hear, they have removed the item(s) from your report or they are not going to remove it.

If they do not remove the error from your report, send another letter!

It is very important to have good credit, especially when you are ready to apply for Small Business Financing.

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Article Tags: credit bureaus, financial future, initiative



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