25% Of All Credit Reports Are Innacurate

The credit bureaus have come out with “studies” claiming that there are very few errors that show up on people’s credit reports. They have said that less than 1% of credit reports contain errors. For many years many of us have suspected that there are errors showing up on our credit reports. Some studies have even come out saying that 80% of credit reports have errors on them! But the credit bureaus still insist that only 1 in every 100 credit reports have errors in them. So who is right?

The credit bureaus swear that 99% of credit reports are completely accurate. And yet other sources show much different results. But we don’t completely know these other sources, so we’re left not knowing who to trust.

Well in comes the FTC. We all know who the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is. We know that they are a government agency set up to protect consumers. So if they come out with a study talking about the accuracy (or inaccuracy) of credit reports, we know we can trust them.

FTC Study shows that 25% of all credit reports have inaccuracies

The credit bureaus are stating that only 1% of credit reports contain errors. But according to a new study done by the Federal Trade Commission, that is absolutely not the case. So what did the Federal Trade Commission’s study find? Definitely not that all credit reports are completely accurate.

The FTC came out with a study in February of this year that found that “One in four consumers identified errors on their credit reports that might affect their credit scores.” That means that 25% of all credit reports contained errors in them. That may not be the 80% that some studies have shown, but that still shows that if you are the 1 in 4 Americans, your credit reports may contain incorrect items on them. So even though it’s only 25%, that still means that if I am one of those 1 in 4 people, I could be living with a lower credit score than I deserve. I could be denied for credit, or I could be paying higher interest rates than I deserve, all because of completely inaccurate items on my credit reports.

How to find out if you are part of that 25%

So how do you know if you are part of that 25% of people that have inaccurate items on their credit reports, that could potentially be brining your credit scores down? It’s actually quite simple. All you have to do is order copies of your credit reports. You can order free copies of all three your credit reports once a year.

So, order free copies of your credit reports and look over them very closely. Make sure that all of the items on there (and all of the aspects within each item) are accurate.

What to do if you have errors on your credit reports

If you do notice that you have fallen into that unlucky 25% and there are errors on your credit reports, you have the legal right to dispute those items to have them corrected or removed from your credit reports. You can do this on your own, or you can hire a credit repair company to do this on your behalf. They can also read through your credit reports for you (they can be a bit confusing for most people) and help you identify those inaccurate items that may be on there.

The author who contributed this article is Chase Sagum, Financial and Business blogger. Check out more of his content at www.lexingtonlaw.com.