Credit Report Error? Here’s What to Do

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If you’re ready to apply for a loan, open a new line of credit, or make a financially large purchase, a company or lender will often take a look at your credit report before allowing you to spend the money or use a loan. You can even order a copy of your credit report for yourself. But what happens when you find an error? When looking through your credit report, you may find that you’ve been pinged for a delinquent loan payment. It might indicate that you never paid a loan. But you may have never taken that loan in the first place, which would mark the ping as an error. How does this affect your credit report? What can you do to remove a credit report error?

Disputing the Error by Mail

You can send a letter through the traditional mail, or through email.

It is recommended to do both – send an email to your credit bureau, and then send a hard copy of your letter to them as well. Your credit report should have the address of the credit bureau listed on it.

Disputing the Error by Phone

If you do not receive a reply within a few days, feel free to contact the agency by phone. If they do not reply with any sort of correspondence regarding the dispute, do not give up. Mail a second dispute letter, and this time, ask for a return receipt request. You should highlight the error and bring all the attention that you can to the area of the report that has been pinged. Feel free to send carbon copies to the FTC or the CFPB. It is very important that you get this taken care of right away.

Contact Your Creditor

Fortunately, your credit report should list the name of a specific creditor. This creditor is responsible for creating the delinquent account, and they should be contacted as well. If they try to give you a hard time by mentioning that there is no proof that you didn’t apply for a loan, you can create a notarized statement that says the delinquent information is not accurate nor genuine.

Wait for Your Response

It is a bit of a waiting game when it comes to getting an error removed from your credit report. While your credit score may be suffering because of it, try not to worry too much about it. You can always work on improving your score after the issue at hand has been removed. It may take a week to hear from the credit agency; at this time, you will receive a confirmation that the agency has received your request, and that a complaint was filed, and that they will investigate the issue.

It can take up to two weeks after that to hear a final response from the credit agency. Don’t give up hope, as typically these agencies will listen to your plea with your better interests in mind. They will let you know that the delinquent report was, in fact, an error, and they will add notes to your credit report upon its removal.

If anything is left unresolved, reach out to the FTC or CFPB again. You do not need to give up on this issue until it is solved.

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