Back in February, I remember watching a report on 60 Minutes titled 40 Million Mistakes: Is your credit report accurate? The piece focused on a study that indicated that as many as 40 million consumers have a mistake on their credit reports. Correspondent Steve Kroft talked to several individuals who discussed just how hard it is to get any of the credit bureaus to fix mistakes, especially Experian. Now, I'm actually someone who checks their credit report quite often.
Every time I do a churn, usually every 90 days, I'll run a copy of my credit report and credit scores. Remember, you can get your free TransUnion score from CreditKarma and your free Experian score from Credit Sesame. Don't forget that you are also entitled to a free credit report each year from the 3 major credit reporting bureaus, thanks to Uncle Sam. I've actually been lucky enough to never find any mistakes on my reports...that is until my recent April churn.
A new government study concluded that 40 million Americans have mistakes on their reports, and about half of those mistakes are serious. A 60 Minutes investigation found that it is almost impossible in some cases to get those mistakes cleared up. Experian, Transunion, and Equifax are the three companies that dominate the credit reporting market, tracking the financial prowess of US consumers.
Step 1 - Selecting which type of credit report you have. PROBLEM 1 - the annual credit report doesn't have a report number. After doing some Google research it seems that some Experian free annual reports print with the number while others don't. Mine didn't have the number, so I selected that option. You also must have a report that is no older than 90 days if you want to open a dispute, otherwise you'll need to purchase a new one (more on that below). Step 2 - I was then asked to select which of the reports my report looked like.
But an eight-year study by the Federal Trade Commission, released February 11 2013, put the industry under the microscope. FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz called the findings troubling, with 20% of Americans having errors on their credit reports. About one in 10 has an error that would negatively affect the consumer's score. "It's a pretty high error rate," Leibowitz observed.
After entering the number I was instructed that "online disputes are not available for your account due to security precautions, please call our customer service team for assistance". UGH! Step 5 - I thought this would be the most difficult part of the process, but it was quite painless. As a current customer (remember that 7 day free trial), I was routed right away to an agent and told them that I wanted to open a dispute, but was not able to online. The agent was definitely American and he seemed apologetic and happy to help. He asked what exactly I wanted to dispute and had me hold for about three minutes. He then came back and said that I should receive an email response within 14-21 days. I didn't expect much and after reading other horror stories, I anticipated calling back in after three weeks passed.
Note, there are some pretty horrible stories about getting an agent on the phone who can actually assist if you're rejected online...unless you are a "current customer", not one who has accessed your report via annualcreditreport or via a 3rd party website. It's probably worth the $1 trial, to avoid this just remember to cancel before the 7 days are up, it doesn't impact the investigation.
60 Minutes: Credit Report Customer Service About eight million consumers file disputes every year, visiting the credit reporting websites to begin the process, if they can first navigate sales pitches for financial products offered by the companies. Steve Kroft called a customer service number and got a call center in India, where he was not given much help after a 15-minute phone call to a toll-free number. What about that post office box number? According to Kroft, "it's extremely unlikely that anyone with the authority to resolve your dispute will ever actually see it."
Every time I do a churn, usually every 90 days, I'll run a copy of my credit report and credit scores. Remember, you can get your free TransUnion score from CreditKarma and your free Experian score from Credit Sesame. Don't forget that you are also entitled to a free credit report each year from the 3 major credit reporting bureaus, thanks to Uncle Sam. I've actually been lucky enough to never find any mistakes on my reports...that is until my recent April churn.
A new government study concluded that 40 million Americans have mistakes on their reports, and about half of those mistakes are serious. A 60 Minutes investigation found that it is almost impossible in some cases to get those mistakes cleared up. Experian, Transunion, and Equifax are the three companies that dominate the credit reporting market, tracking the financial prowess of US consumers.
Step 1 - Selecting which type of credit report you have. PROBLEM 1 - the annual credit report doesn't have a report number. After doing some Google research it seems that some Experian free annual reports print with the number while others don't. Mine didn't have the number, so I selected that option. You also must have a report that is no older than 90 days if you want to open a dispute, otherwise you'll need to purchase a new one (more on that below). Step 2 - I was then asked to select which of the reports my report looked like.
But an eight-year study by the Federal Trade Commission, released February 11 2013, put the industry under the microscope. FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz called the findings troubling, with 20% of Americans having errors on their credit reports. About one in 10 has an error that would negatively affect the consumer's score. "It's a pretty high error rate," Leibowitz observed.
After entering the number I was instructed that "online disputes are not available for your account due to security precautions, please call our customer service team for assistance". UGH! Step 5 - I thought this would be the most difficult part of the process, but it was quite painless. As a current customer (remember that 7 day free trial), I was routed right away to an agent and told them that I wanted to open a dispute, but was not able to online. The agent was definitely American and he seemed apologetic and happy to help. He asked what exactly I wanted to dispute and had me hold for about three minutes. He then came back and said that I should receive an email response within 14-21 days. I didn't expect much and after reading other horror stories, I anticipated calling back in after three weeks passed.
Note, there are some pretty horrible stories about getting an agent on the phone who can actually assist if you're rejected online...unless you are a "current customer", not one who has accessed your report via annualcreditreport or via a 3rd party website. It's probably worth the $1 trial, to avoid this just remember to cancel before the 7 days are up, it doesn't impact the investigation.
60 Minutes: Credit Report Customer Service About eight million consumers file disputes every year, visiting the credit reporting websites to begin the process, if they can first navigate sales pitches for financial products offered by the companies. Steve Kroft called a customer service number and got a call center in India, where he was not given much help after a 15-minute phone call to a toll-free number. What about that post office box number? According to Kroft, "it's extremely unlikely that anyone with the authority to resolve your dispute will ever actually see it."
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