How to Fix Erroneous Credit Report Data

Your credit score is only be as good as your credit report. When your credit report contains erroneous negative information, this drags your credit score below what it would be if your report were accurate. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to dispute anything on your credit report that you believe is incorrect. The credit bureau with which you initiate the dispute must investigate the disputed data and remove it from your credit report if they cannot prove it is accurate.

Instructions

1

Obtain a copy of your credit report from each of the credit bureaus, if you have not already done so. The Annual Credit Report website allows you to order a free report from each bureau each year.

2

Review your credit reports carefully and mark each piece of information you need to fix. Examples include reports of missed payments when you actually paid on time, collection accounts that do not belong to you and negative items that are more than seven years old, or 10 years in the case of bankruptcy.

3

Go to the dispute website for the first credit bureau that provided a report with an error. Enter the required information to file the dispute.

4

Repeat the process for each additional credit bureau, if needed. Sometimes an error will only appear on one of your credit reports, whereas in other cases, it might be on all three.