Your credit report should be an accurate portrayal of how you use credit and manage your money. If old, inaccurate or misplaced information shows up on your report, federal law gives you the right to request its deletion.
Old Information
The Fair Credit Reporting Act limits the amount of time negative information can stay on your credit reports. Negative information is supposed to drop off your reports after about seven years, though bankruptcy information can stay on for 10 years and unpaid judgments can linger until the state statute of limitations on judgment collection passes. An exception to this rule exists for credit reports pulled for loans and lines of credit over $150,000 or employment offers that pay over $75,000 per year. In such cases, there is no time limit on how long negative information can stay on the report.
Wrong Information
Sometimes creditors and credit bureaus get things wrong. For example, a creditor might post that you missed a payment when you really didn't or a credit bureau might fail to update your report with the information that you paid off a balance. When you carefully and regularly monitor your credit reports, you can spot bad information and get it corrected.
Someone Else's Information
There are couple of situations in which someone else's information might end up on your credit report. The first is identity confusion. This happens when credit information belonging to somebody who shares your name or who has a similar Social Security number ends up on your credit report. The second is identity theft, in which someone takes out credit in your name, leaving you to deal with the consequences. In both cases, you need to contact the credit bureaus and explain the situation. Ask for a security flag or freeze on your credit reports and dispute all erroneous information in writing.
Correcting Your Credit Reports
To correct your credit reports, request a copy from all three major credit bureaus. You can do this for free once a year at annualcreditreport.com. Read them over and identify errors. Then dispute the errors by either sending a written request to each credit bureau or using their online dispute reporting systems. Follow up with each credit bureau: they have 30 days to investigate your disputes. If they can't verify the information you dispute, they must remove it from your report.
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