Credit Bureaus

Credit reporting companies are subject to The Federal Credit Reporting Act. Dealing with credit bureaus and repairing your credit isn’t a complicated or difficult process. It’s fairly straightforward, unless you have a difficult situation.

Credit reporting agencies are merely data collection points for credit information. They never verify the information that is sent to them, unless you, the victim, request it! They simply record, in your file, every bit of information which is sent to them by lenders. Frequently, the information is wrong, and they never question it!

All credit reporting agencies must now provide one copy of each individual’s credit report every year, upon request. You must obtain copies of your credit report from all three major credit reporting agencies listed below.

Experian
PO Box 2104
Allen, TX 75103-2104
888-397-3724
www.experian.com

Equifax
PO Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
800-997-2493
www.equifax.com

Trans Union
PO Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022
800-888-4213
www.tuc.com

I don’t know why, but these credit reporting agencies seem to change their mailing addresses fairly often. So, you may have to get their current address. You can get the current information on the Internet, or most any business involved with credit. You can also call them for their current address.

When you have received these reports it is critical to first review all the personally identifying information in the credit reports, including:

1.Names and Aliases
2.Addresses
3.Social Security Number(s)
4.Date(s) of Birth
5.State ID Number(s)
6.Spouse Information
7.Employers

Note whether this information is in any way inaccurate, incorrect, erroneous, misleading, or outdated. Dispute these mistakes first, because this information is used to help verify the credit items on your credit report.

Compare the credit reports from each credit bureau to make sure all the reports match. If they don’t, the incorrect data has to be changed. Simply letting the credit bureaus know about the incorrect data should be enough to make them change it.

Sometimes items that are not yours appear on your report, because it somehow matches some incorrect personally identifying information. By disputing these first, other erroneous items that could be added at a later date will no longer match your file.