5 Things to Look for When You Check Your Credit Report

I have talked at length in the past about the importance of checking your credit report on a regular basis. Doing so can help you to diagnose and fix problems. But some consumers may receive a copy of their credit report and not really know what they are looking at.

I am going to provide you with 5 things to look for when you do check your credit:

1. Let’s start out simple.  Check your personal information to make sure that it is accurate. This includes your name, Social Security number, address, phone number, and date of birth. If employers are listed, you may want to review them as well. If any information is outdated or simply incorrect, you can correct it with the credit reporting agency.
2. Check to make sure that you recognize all of the accounts that are listed on your credit report. Checking your credit is a good way to be alerted to potential identify theft or fraud, so that is one reason that I recommend checking your credit at least annually and/or having a credit monitoring service.
3. Check for collection accounts that you were not aware of. I have had medical bills in particular that I was unaware of and did not receive any collection activity until a collection account showed up on my credit report. Checking your credit is a good way to make sure that you have paid everything that is outstanding (see post on zombie debt).
4. Check your account balances to make sure that they are current and accurate. Mistakes do happen, so it just makes sense to check these balances for correctness. If you are off by a payment, that is fine (it may not have updated yet), but larger discrepancies may be cause for concern.
5. Check for old accounts that should be removed from your report. The general rule is that bankruptcies can stay on your credit for 10 years and negative accounts can stay up to 7 years from the date of last activity (there are some other specifics that you can read up on if needed). Positive accounts can stay on your account indefinitely (and you want them to!). Review the timeline for each negative account and contact the credit reporting agency if the account is past or nearing the removal date, making sure to cite your knowledge of the 7-10 years timeline. Some agencies include actual expiration dates on the report, which makes it easy, but you should still check to make sure that they are accurate. If you are within a month or two of the deadline, I have found that the credit reporting bureau may be willing to remove it early if you ask.

We all have access to our credit reports (see post on free credit report), but this access is only useful if we know how to take action based on the information that we receive. If you find information that is outdated, incorrect or fraudulent, the first step is to contact the credit reporting agency that provided the report and submit a dispute. Doing so can help to prevent further damage and possibly raise your credit score.

Have you ever disputed an account on your credit report? How did you do it? Was your attempt successful? Please comment below and share your credit experience with us.