One big mistake you want to avoid is making a large purchase before investigating your credit report first.

• Often, people go to the lender to make a purchase with only 'somewhat' of an idea of their credit score.
• They don’t give much thought to the fact that there may be errors on their credit report.
• However, according to the Federal Trade Commission, one in five people have a mistake on at least one of their credit reports.
• An error on your credit report can result in a score decrease from a few points to several points, depending on the error.

With this in mind, it’s crucial to find any mistakes and correct them before you begin the loan process. Here are five common errors to look for on your credit report with credit help tips from your Credit Divas!

Inaccurate Information

Fixing inaccurate information seems like an obvious task, but you’d be surprised how many times simple information is incorrect on credit reports!

• It could be anything from your name or address to past credit information.
• Maybe the report contains erroneous information about a place you used to work for.
• This might not seem like something important, but it’s essential to get right.

Fraud

Hopefully, you don’t have any fraudulent activity on your credit report. If you do, you might be in for an unpleasant surprise.

• The Federal Trade Commission states that in 2019, 3.2 million identity theft reports were made.
• Of those, 1.7 million pertained to fraud.

Fraud can significantly impact your credit report due to someone charging up your card or engaging in other fraudulent activity. This is definitely something you want to keep an eye on before you end up needing credit help!

Duplicate Accounts

• If you notice the same account or debt listed twice or more, you have a duplicate on your credit report.
• A duplicate account is a serious error because it could cause your entire balance to be higher.
• In addition, duplicate accounts will lower your credit score—meaning you won’t be privy to the best interest rates.

It’s essential to have duplicate accounts removed so your credit score doesn’t decrease over a coding or clerical error caused by someone else.

Debt That Is Older Than 7 Years

• If you have any negative information on your credit report, it will be expunged in seven years.
• If you’re seeing a debt on your report from more than seven years ago, then that needs to be deleted.

What type of debt should be removed after seven years? Bad debts, charge-offs, bankruptcies, and so on are supposed to be removed automatically.

Incorrect Payment Statuses

The last thing you want to look for on your credit report involves errors with the payment statuses.

• Sometimes the report will contain incorrect information about when you made a payment, if you made a payment, or how much your payment was.
• These payment errors can throw your entire credit report off in a few ways. For one thing, it can erroneously appear like you made a late payment or skipped a payment when you didn’t—which will hit your credit score hard.

Steps to Correct Errors

• Your first step is finding out if you have any of these errors on your report.
• You can have a company like Credit Diva of Dallas review your credit report to determine any errors.
• Next, Credit Diva will aggressively work with you to remove all erroneous material from your report.

If you're ready to have your reports reviewed by the professionals in credit help, any additional packages you choose later will have your initial review fees rolled right in!

You can’t lose with Credit Diva of Dallas by your side. Take control of your future by getting your credit repaired. Get in touch with us today!