Regularly monitoring your credit reports is an important part of growing better credit scores.  Because so many credit reports have errors on them, you want to review yours often to be sure that nothing erroneous has been added. 

So what do you do if there is suddenly a late payment or charge-off notation on one of your accounts that you know is in good standing?  Contact the company who is reporting it.  Tell them that you reviewed your credit file and saw this account listed as sent to collections, charged-off, or with a late payment on it, and you do not believe this is correct. 

When they say, "Oh, you're right, that was our error", get it in writing.   Request a fax, letter or email stating that the account was never late and is paid as agreed; if the account is paid off, have them add that it has zero balance due. 

Use a copy of that statement to send the three credit bureaus with your request that they correct this error on your credit report.  Keep a copy of the letters you send and note the date you send them.  Then, keep the letter.  Put it in your file with the rest of the paperwork for this company and account just in case you need it in the future. 

We have seen things pop up a few years down the road and most people know they talked to a company representative and were told, 'don't worry, we'll take care of it'.  However, without anything in writing, and without thorough notes of the details, date and time of the conversation, it is hard to prove that your side of it.

To get a copy of your credit report from one, two or all three of the credit bureaus, go to annualcreditreport.com.   This is the place to get the actual no-cost reports that consumers are entitled to by law.  There is no charge and nothing to sign up for.  You can also read more about getting your own reports and scores here.

We recommend checking one of your three credit bureau reports every four months for monitoring purposes.  If you have shared accounts with a spouse or partner, that gives you a total of six reports per year – three each.  You can alternate monitoring every two months to have check your credit even more often. 
NOTE: If you find an error on one credit bureau report, send the dispute to all three to be thorough. 

We offer individual credit consulting for those who don't want to pursue their own corrections and we also provide a Credit Analysis for those who want strategies to grow their scores based on where they are right now.  Contact us today for more information.