You have worked very hard to maintain your credit score and keep your credit score at the level that entitles you to what you deserve.
What you deserve is fair and proper treatment by mortgage companies, banks, credit card companies, and any other entity that might loan you money.
Maintaining a good credit score is not always easy to do.
You have to pay all your bills, pay all your bills on time, and properly maintain all your accounts.
Sometimes a credit reporting agency will make a mistake and that mistake will result in you getting a lower credit score.
So you do everything right, but a credit reporting agency’s mistake hurts you?
That’s not fair.
TransUnion is one of the three major credit reporting agencies in the United States.
Potential lenders pay TransUnion for your credit report when those lenders want to get an idea of your creditworthiness.
Errors and inaccuracies on those TransUnion credit reports happen more often than they should.
When a TransUnion error appears on your credit report, it does damage to your credit score – the very same credit score that you have worked hard to maintain.
Here’s how that happens and here’s what you can do about it
Common TransUnion Credit Report Errors
Here are some common errors that you will see in a TransUnion credit report.
Some of them are just typos or administrative errors.
Other ones are wrong information from the financial institutions from which TransUnion gets your financial data.
No matter what the error, it is not an accurate reflection of you and your financial history.
- Incorrect personal information. A mistake in your name, address, former address, or Social Security number can mix your financial history and credit activity with someone else’s, leading to inaccuracies.
- Outdated account statuses. When you close an account but TransUnion mistakenly identifies it as open or delinquent, your credit utilization ratio increases and your credit score gets unjustly diminished. (More on credit utilization ratio later.)
- Incorrect account details. Any errors or inaccuracies in your account balances, credit limits, opening dates, or ownership can cause lenders to question your ability to manage your credit and your finances.
- Account duplication. Sometimes a credit reporting agency will list the same debt twice. This gives lenders the idea that you have more debt than you really do and might not be able to handle much more.
- Fraud. You should not be responsible for the accounts that identity thieves have opened accounts in your name.
Impact of These Errors on Your Credit Score
These errors will lower your credit score.
Your credit score is important because it shows how responsibly you manage your credit and your potential for getting even more in debt.
Potential lenders want to know they are going to get their money back.
They look at your credit score to determine how risky it might be to lend you money.
TransUnion calculates your credit score using several factors.
These factors include:
- the length of time that you have been a borrower.
- the kinds of credit that you have.
- whether there are any recent credit inquiries on your report.
- how reliable you’ve been in making your payments.
- your overall payment history.
- your credit utilization rate.
Your credit utilization rate is the percentage of your possible debt that you’ve already used.
Let’s say that you have two credit cards and each one has a limit of $10,000.
If the balances on those cards add up to $5,000, your credit utilization rate is 25%.
This percentage rate is a big factor when it comes to calculating your credit score as it indicates your potential to take even more debt.
While credit utilization rate is important, your payment history is probably the most important factor that TransUnion uses in calculating your credit score.
Your payment history indicates how reliable you are in paying off your debts.
While everyone’s credit report is different because everyone’s debt and financial history are different, one late mortgage payment can lower your credit score by up to 100 points.
When TransUnion sells your report to a potential lender, that lender will look at your score and determine if it wants to lend you money.
Sometimes, the lender will determine that a borrower is too risky and decide not to lend that borrower anything.
Other times, the lender will look at your credit score, assess the potential risk of lending you money, and decide to lend you that money despite the perceived risks.
But to offset or minimize the risk the lender perceives based on your score, the lender will raise the interest rate on the loan.
Even though you got the loan, you will end up paying more than you should because the lender mistakenly believes you to be a risk.
When TransUnion makes a mistake on your credit report – whether erroneously reporting that you made a late payment or two, or that an account you closed years ago is still open, or that you have more debts than you do because TransUnion misspelled your name in its searches and included the debt of someone else – you are either losing an opportunity by not getting the loan you need, or you are paying more interest and fees than you should because the lender sees you as riskier than you are.
Anyone will say with absolute certainty that this is not fair.
As a consumer law firm, we can say that we want to do something about it.
Contact a Consumer Protection Attorney For Guidance
Request your report from TransUnion by visiting their website or by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com.
Look for errors.
If you see any errors, contact a consumer protection attorney who can tell you how to fix them.
If you have any difficulties or issues in fixing the TransUnion credit report errors, contact a consumer protection attorney.
If TransUnion ignores your dispute, contact a consumer protection attorney.
If TransUnion’s errors have already caused harm to your financial well-being or opportunities for a mortgage, loan, apartment, or opportunity of any sort, contact a consumer protection attorney.
You worked hard for your credit score.
It should not be diminished by the carelessness of a huge company like TransUnion.
Consumer protection attorneys do nothing but fight for consumers.
They know the laws that govern credit reports, credit report companies, and credit report inaccuracies.
They know how to dispute, negotiate with, and collect damages from companies like TransUnion.
Call a consumer protection attorney if you have any questions about your credit report dispute or credit reporting in general.
They can help you fix issues with your credit report and also make sure your rights to sue are preserved should they discover damage to your financial health.
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