Submitted by New Jersey Bankruptcy Lawyer, Lee M. Perlman.
Errors in credit reports may occur. Some common errors are:
Identity errors:
- Errors made to your identity information (wrong name, phone number, address)
- Accounts belonging to another consumer with the same or similar name as yours (this mixing of two consumers’ information in a single file is called a mixed file)
- Incorrect accounts resulting from identity theft
Incorrect reporting of account status
- Closed accounts reported as open
- Reported as the owner of the account, when you are actually just an authorized user
- Accounts that are incorrectly reported as late or delinquent
- Incorrect date of last payment, date opened, or date of first delinquency
Data management /processing errors
- Reinsertion of incorrect information after it was corrected
- Accounts that appear multiple times with different creditors listed (especially in the case of delinquent accounts or accounts in collections)
- Information appears that should no longer be on your credit report, such as a debt that is more than seven years old
- Credit accounts in your file that don’t belong to you
Balance Errors
- Accounts with an incorrect current balance
- Accounts with an incorrect credit limit
Originally published here by consumerfinance.gov.