What Happens If Your Mortgage Goes Missing on the Credit Report?

A credit report contains information about your history as a credit user. Your credit report is integral to your ability to obtain credit, but can also be used for rental applications and employers make check it before offering you a job. If your credit report doesn't contain information about your mortgage history you can take steps to change the error.

Credit Report Inspections

All consumers have the right to view a copy of their credit report once a year without charge. Each consumer has three credit reports maintained by the three consumer credit reporting companies: TransUnion, Equifax and Expirian. Errors can appear on one or all of these reports, and just because one has correct information doesn't mean the others will as well. Erroneous mortgage information can appear on one or all of your reports.

Impact

The effect that any information has on your credit report differs from case to case. Creditors use your credit report to determine your credit score, a number that represents your creditworthiness. Your score is based on several factors, such as your payment history, amount of money owed and the average length of your credit accounts. If you have a good history of paying your mortgage for a long time, that missing information may hurt your score. On the other hand, if you've gone through a foreclosure and that is missing, the absence of your mortgage may raise your score.

Errors

You have the right to change incorrect information on your credit reports. After inspecting the report and identifying the error, you can contact the credit reporting company and ask it to remove or correct the error. You must be able to prove there is an error by providing written copies of documents that support your claim. If the company refuses to correct the error you can contact the Federal Trade Commission to file a complaint.

Lenders

Your mortgage lender probably reports your mortgage information to at least one of the three credit reporting companies. When errors appear on your report, you also can contact your lender and inform it of the mistake. A lender may be able to get the information corrected more quickly than you as its information is what the credit reporting companies rely upon.