Your credit report is your personal profile mostly related to financial status, transactions and liabilities. You will come to know all these when you will be provided with a free copy of credit reports. You might know that business institutions demands your credit report and accordingly evaluate your applications for credit, insurance etc.
The law known as Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) demands information incorporated in the credit report to be accurate and complete.
It is always advisable that you should verify your credit report regularly. Any mistake found here can immediately be reported and rectified. If you come to know that your credit report contains some negative elements for which your credit processing is adversely affected, you will be provided with the name, address and telephone no of the CRA for correspondence. Now, you can ask for a copy of the credit report to know the negative elements. The credit company will provide you free of cost provided certain legal requirements are met.
The next step is correcting errors. If you have found some errors in your credit report, please contact both the CRA and the information provider. Sometimes, wrong information is also being provided and the credit report agencies keep record of the same without verification. Therefore, you must provide both of them (credit agency & CRA) with the correct information for rectification. It’s your right as well as duty to come out with the truth and let both the parties know what the truth is all about.
Here is the strategy of getting things corrected. You are to provide the CRA with the correct information along with the supportive documents. Here you have the opportunity to prove yourself what you really are and what you really have. Don’t approach to the CRA without proof, and don’t give them the original copies of your proof. In certain cases, you have to provide the same copy to different CRAs. Your application must be clear in identifying the mistake made in the report and the corrective version of the same. You are to explain why you disagree with the information; what are your views and statements. You letter should be the bases of next report. Send your letter to the CRA by registered post; keep a copy of your letter. After having received your letter, the CRA will verify the information in question and your remarks and the documents provided by you. This verification will be done within a month. If the CRA is not satisfied with your version of truth, if they differ with your remark, it may take longer period. The CRA will send a copy of your letter along with supportive documents to the information provider for cross verification. In this stage, the information provider will verify its information in question forwarded by the CRA. Then the information provider will send its report back to all CRAs that rely on its information.
Here are some provisions of law regarding the disputed information. The disputed information that cannot be verified must be deleted. The information not being true must be corrected. Any incomplete information must be completed by the CRA in its verified report. Any wrong account shown on the report must be corrected. Any change made in the report must be intimated to you. It is the duty of the CRA to send the revised report to such institutions that relied on its earlier report within six months. Time taken here is different in different context. In case of job and employment, a copy of the corrected report is sent to anyone who received a copy during the past two years.
The interesting point is that if the disputed matter does not get resolved even after investigation, you ask the CRA to get your statement recorded and published in the forth coming reports. At the same time, you must let the information provider know your stated version in relation to your disagreement with the information provided by them. As you communicate to both the parties—the CRA as well as the information provider, maintain all formalities of formal correspondence. It means you should have the copy of what you send its receipt and acknowledgement.
If the CRA is convinced of the corrected version, the corresponding changes will be made accordingly. Such verified information can remain valid up to 7 years with certain exceptions that demand immediate changes of information. Such cases are criminal convictions, bankruptcy, salary, lawsuit, credit card account etc.