The Government Accountability Office states that as much as 80 to 90% of credit reports have serious errors on them. In other words, only 1 or 2 people out of every 10 actually have a credit report that is 100% accurate! Not exactly the best success rate. Granted not every error on a credit report will directly effect that person’s credit score, but a huge majority of them will. The credit score world we live in is not like our judicial system, you know “innocent until proven guilty”. This system is the exact opposite, you are guilty unless you can prove yourself innocent, that is assuming you even knew how to do this.
If you were wrong 80 to 90% of the time and most likely every time it happened you were responsible for costing someone thousands of dollars or worse crushing their dreams, how would you respond? Most people would do everything they could to fix the problem and help their victims recover as fast as possible. Sadly when it comes to the accuracy of your credit report there is a different philosophy being employed.
The “Big Three” (Transunion, Experian, and Equifax) have a much different way of dealing with this major problem. Most of us know that if there is something wrong or inaccurate on our credit report we have the right to dispute that information. Disputing it is how it will get fixed, but did you know that there are several ways or methods to go about disputing something?
If you look at the websites of the “Big Three” they will make it really easy to dispute anything that is inaccurate on your credit online with just a few clicks of the button through their online dispute process. Have you ever wondered why they would push this option so hard, and make it so easy for you to complete? It has to be so their product (your credit report) is as accurate as possible, in the shortest amount of time possible, and this is the best way to ensure future accuracy, correct? How would you feel if you learned that by following these instructions to fix their error, in reality all you are doing is waving several of your rights and changing the things they are required to do by law?
By disputing online you agree to make the “Big Three’s” job easier by having preselected generic ways that you can dispute something. There is no paper trail to even prove you actually do dispute something, and you allow them more time to “investigate” your dispute. All of this along with a few other minor details like waving your right to be notified if a previously deleted negative item is re-inserted back on your credit report. By using the online method, you allow them to not have to send you any results of the investigation and lastly give them more loopholes as to what information the original creditor has to provide. All these things will greatly hinder the chance of you getting your credit report corrected.
Don’t just assume the bureaus are right or that they are doing anything in reality to help you improve or maintain a good credit score. That is not the business they are in. Having you dispute online is just one more way they prove how little they really care about you having an accurate credit report. It is pretty clear that the real motive of the credit bureaus is only to make money, to sell you worthless add on products, and confuse you. Even when they recognize their product has flaws, their first instinct is to create a way of dealing with that problem by making their job easier, not one that will ensure the best accuracy possible. Credit bureaus make money storing and reporting data, unfortunately for us nowhere in that statement is the word ACCURATE data.