As an Arizona consumer who’s working to earn and maintain a good credit score, checking your credit reports is essential. This is the only way to be sure that everything that has been reported is accurate, and that there are no errors bringing down your credit score. How common are errors on credit reports? Believe it or not, about 80% of consumer credit reports contain inaccuracies of some type. Luckily, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives Arizona residents the right to have credit report errors removed. However, you have to know that they’re there first.
Common Credit Report Errors that Arizona Consumers Might Find and How these Errors can Harm Credit Scores
Sometimes credit report errors are glaringly obvious, and these mistakes can also be subtle and easy to miss. Here are a few of the more common credit report errors that Arizonians might find and why these inaccuracies can be credit score killers.
The Mixed File
If another person has a name that is the same or similar to yours, their information can sometimes end up on your credit reports. When this happens, the result is called a “mixed file.” This can be damaging to your credit score if the person with whom you’ve been confused has delinquent accounts that have been reported. These accounts will look like they belong to you and your credit score will drop.
Bad Reporting on Good Accounts
Sometimes accounts that should be in good standing are accidentally reported as delinquent. This means that you’re making timely payments every month, but your credit score is falling. So the sooner you can catch this credit report error the better.
Seeing Double
Having a negative mark on one or all of your credit reports is bad enough, so you definitely don’t want it duplicated. Unfortunately, though, a delinquent account can show up twice on a credit report. Sometimes it’s listed under a slightly different name, and this makes it even more confusing.
It’s Ba-ack!
Sadly, if an error is removed from one or more of your credit reports, this doesn’t mean that the mistake won’t reappear. Sometimes an inaccurate item gets re-reported. This is why it’s important to keep checking your credit reports even after errors have been taken off. New errors might show up, or old mistakes may reappear.
Identity Theft
It’s a scary thought, but sometimes you won’t know your identity has been stolen until you see a strange account appear on your credit reports. This is yet another reason why it’s so important to monitor your credit on a regular basis. With cyber-thieves using all of the latest technology to hack into accounts and take information, you can’t be too cautious.
No matter what kind of error you find on any of your credit reports, you can get a FREE credit repair lawyer to help you get them removed. At Credit Repair Lawyers of America, we work under the FCRA to ensure that Arizona residents are able to get back the credit scores they’ve earned.
The Free and Legal way to Get Better Credit
Don’t let errors on your credit reports bring your credit score down. At Credit Repair Lawyers of America, we’ve been cleaning up credit reports for consumers since 2008 for free. How do we do it? All of our fees come from the defendants in cases that are settled. This is why our clients pay nothing for the work we do.
Let’s start the conversation about what we can do for your credit. Set up your free consultation today by calling Attorney Gary Nitzkin at ((480)771-6001 or sending him a message through our contact page.
