How to Investigate Your Equifax Credit Report

There are three nationwide consumer credit reporting companies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) that maintain files of your debts and loans, as well as other information, such as personal judgments, liens, employment, and current and past addresses. In some circumstances, you might want to contact only Equifax in cases where you applied for credit or for employment and the company received a negative report from Equifax, or if you have reason to believe that there is erroneous information on your Equifax credit report.

Instructions

Contacting Equifax

1

Access annualcreditreport.com on the Internet to investigate your Equifax credit report. The Federal Trade Commission says the Fair Credit Reporting Act permits you one free credit report yearly from all three credit reporting agencies, and annualcreditreport.com is the only Internet portal authorized to provide this to you. You can choose to obtain only your Equifax report or your reports from all three agencies.

2

If you don't want to request your report online, call (877) 322-8228 for your Equifax credit report, or mail an annual credit report request form to Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281. The FTC notes that you might have to wait an additional 15 working days to get your Equifax report from the date you call or from the time your request is received. The Annual Credit Report Request Form can be found on annualcreditreport.com.

3

If you've already ordered your free annual credit report, contact Equifax directly to purchase another report. Equifax can be reached at (800) 685-1111 or online (see Resources section). You might have to pay up to $10.50 for any additional reports within a 12-month period, the FTC says.

4

Investigate your Equifax credit report for inaccuracies. Items to pay attention to could be fraudulent accounts (those you did not open), data errors and expired records. An example of an expired record would be a closed account that reflects late payments or other negative information that remains on your credit report for more than seven years. Bankruptcies should not be reflected longer than 10 years. To see what information is reflected in your Equifax credit report, see the Resources section.

5

Contact Equifax with if you notice legitimate errors. Although you can file a dispute online, credit.com indicates that it's best to put your communication in writing and send it to Equifax by certified mail, return receipt requested, so you can ensure that the letter was received--and you'll also have a copy for your own records (for a sample dispute letter, see the Resources section). Include a copy of your Equifax report with the questionable items highlighted or circled, as well as copies of any supporting documentation.

The mailing address for Equifax is Equifax, P.O. Box 740256, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241.