Checking Your Credit Reports

Reviewing Your Credit Reports

There are three areas to which you should pay close attention when checking your Credit Report for errors:.

• In the Personal Information or Personal Data section:
  1. Verify that all of your addresses listed are correct.
  2. Verify your name and all variations of it.
  3. Verify your Social Security Number.
  4. Verify that all employers listed are correct.
      
• In the Accounts sections
  1. Look for any accounts that you did not open
  2. Look for balances on your accounts that are higher than you would expect them to be.
      
• Look for Inquiries or Requests for Your Credit History that you did not make. There are two types of inquiries:
   
  1.  “Regular” or “Hard” inquiries are those that result when you apply for credit or one of your accounts is transferred to a collection agency.
     These are the types of inquiries that should alert you to possible identity theft or report errors.
  2. “Promotional” or “Soft” inquiries.  These are usually not an indication of a problem.  These types of inquiries include checks for employment purposes, pre-approved credit offers, account monitoring by your existing creditors and your own requests for your report.

Correcting Errors in Your Credit Report

Not only will identifying and correcting errors in your credit report help you to catch identity theft at an early stage, having errors in your credit report could raise the cost of your credit.

If you find any errors, contact the credit bureau, that issued the report, immediately. Call the telephone number on the report and to speak with one of their representatives. 

If you find any evidence of identity theft, then the next thing you should do is:

1. Contact any creditors involved
2. Close fraudulent accounts
3. File a police report.

See the Topic on "Identity Theft Victim's Checklist".
 

Credit Histories

The Credit Bureaus also compile credit histories on consumers.
Your credit history contains information from landlords, financial institutions, insurers, utilities, and other places. The credit bureaus compile this information and make it available to potential granters of credit, insurers, employers and landlords.

You have the right to get a free copy of your credit history in several situations:

1. If you are unemployed
2. If a company denies you credit or makes an adverse decision based on your credit history.
3. If you are on welfare
4. If your credit report is inaccurate because of fraud.

Additional Resources

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