FTC: Almost 52 million Americans have errors on their credit report

FTC: Almost 52 million Americans have errors on their credit report -

The Federal Trade Commission has recently published a new study that found a huge 26 percent of people identified at least one error on their credit report. And it was not just people crying wolf - even notoriously difficult to deal with credit bureaus consumers 79 percent of the time and made at least some changes to their credit reports. About half of these identified errors resulted in a change in the consumer's credit score - which means that by the admission of the credit bureaus, 13 percent of people had incorrect credit scores. Of course, when the FTC asked consumers themselves, the picture became even worse. About 63 percent of people who alerted the office said credit offices report errors does not correct any erroneous information.

The study estimated that the credit bureaus to report on at least 200 million consumers. This means that nearly 52 million people would probably find errors on their credit reports if everyone took the time to check them, and about 26 million people could easily have their credit ratings increased by simply reporting errors to the credit bureaus. If you add it all up, it is likely that Americans pay billions in additional interest due to errors on their credit reports.

How your credit score affects your portfolio

Your credit score is not only whether you get approved for a credit card or loan. It also dictates what type of interest rate you offer or how much your credit limit will be. Many lenders have score thresholds for certain prices or credit limits. If your score is 696 and 700 is cut, you will be missing out on the best interest rate of 4 points, which means you have to pay additional interest for no reason. Fixing errors on your credit report will help you to ensure that you get the best interest rate or the highest possible credit limit. And of course, it will also give you the best chance to get that credit card or a loan first.

Here's how to correct your mistakes

Contact the credit bureaus: You can challenge any entry on your credit report yourself. You will have to complete a separate application challenging for each credit bureau on the error occurs - either Experian, Equifax or TransUnion. Each credit bureau has instructions on how to file a dispute on their website. After the office receives the dispute, it will be noted on your credit report that the matter is under consideration. If you want to help file the dispute, several credit report monitoring services offer help and advice as regards the correction of errors on your credit report. Check out our review of the major credit monitoring services for more details or to register.

Action: According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the credit bureaus have 30 days (or a "reasonable" amount) to search for your dispute. After the 30 days are up, they can either check the item (meaning that it was correct and no changes will be made), edit the item to make correct or delete the item. They can also categorize your dispute as "frivolous", which means that the credit bureau does not believe you are serious. If you are not satisfied with the investigation of the credit bureau or the outcome, you can ask them to include a statement of dispute in your credit report and make it available to anyone who views your report, although it will cost a fee. If you are convinced that there is a significant error as offices refuse to fix, you should consider getting help. Although there are many scams out there, the best credit repair services can provide a relatively inexpensive legal assistance to do whatever the law provides fixed these errors. We examined the best (and less scammy) credit repair services and give you more details on each of our credit repair service advice.

Continue to monitor your credit: Errors can occur on your credit report at any time. It is always a good idea to monitor your credit on a regular basis. There are many credit report monitoring services that will give you copies of your credit reports and credit scores updates, monitor your credit report for you and alerts you whenever there are changes to your reports or scores. This is also an effective way to protect against identity theft.

If you want to keep an eye on your credit report for possible future mistakes, you can read our review of the major credit monitoring services and find those free practice and the best deals on monitoring the credit .