What’s In Your Score?

According to the Federal Trade Commission, one in five people have an error on at least one of their credit reports.  Errors on your credit reports can lower your score, which could hurt your ability to get new lines of credit or make the terms of your credit more expensive.  Ultimately, these errors could be costing you money.

You can get a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each of the three major credit reporting companies at www.annualcreditreport.com .  You can request all three reports at once, or request one every few months to review your information throughout the year.  If you find errors, you can dispute them at no cost to you with both the credit reporting company and the company that provided the information.  (add three bureau logos to this page).

Disputing Errors on Credit Reports

To get mistakes corrected on a credit report provided to you by MFI Credit Solutions, you may contact us at 877-634-3282 or by email at customerservice@mfidata.com.  You may also file a dispute directly with the creditor/information furnisher.  All disputed information is reviewed to verify if the mistake/error is on the part of MFI or the creditor.  MFI will review the raw data reporting from each bureau to verify if the information is being reported incorrectly by one of the bureaus or if the error is in the merge logic from our technology provider.   If the error is being caused by our technology, MFI will correct the report immediately and send a copy to the end user and revised copy to the consumer.  If the error is being reported by one of the 3 major credit bureaus, the validated dispute will be submitted to the bureau in question for investigation.  There is no fee to a consumer to process a dispute directly or indirectly.

Once your dispute is submitted, we will notify you as such.  The credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate and respond to us, as a reseller.  We cannot guarantee that an item you dispute will be deleted/updated according to your dispute.  The bureau will reach out to each creditor in question and verify with them directly the accuracy of the reporting.  The bureaus will respond with their findings.  At that time, we will pass the information along to you for review.   For more information regarding credit reports and consumer disputes, please visit www.annualcreditreport.com.

Reviewing Your Credit Report

Once you get your credit reports, you’ll want to review them carefully. You can use the list below to check for common errors and make sure your credit reports are accurate and up-to-date. Each of the credit reporting companies may have different information in your credit report – that’s why you should request your report from each of them.

Personal Information

  • Errors in your identity data, such as wrong name, phone number, or address
  • Accounts belonging to another person with the same or similar name to you
  • Incorrect accounts resulting from identity theft 

Reporting of account status

  • Closed accounts reported as open
  • You’re reported as the owner of the account, when you’re 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
  • Same debt listed more than once

Balance errors

  • Accounts with incorrect current balance
  • Accounts with incorrect credit limit

Data management errors

  • Reinsertion of incorrect information after it was corrected
  • Accounts that appear multiple times with different creditors listed

Looking for a step-by-step guide to reviewing your credit reports?
Download the Credit Report Review Checklist to keep it on file with your credit reports.

Credit Repair Scams

Many credit repair companies offer consumers a way to “repair” their credit, which is simply a different way of stating that they will dispute items on a credit report on behalf of a consumer.  You, the consumer, can do all of this free of charge.   It is important to know that credit “repair” companies do not have the ability to obtain a copy of your credit report as the credit bureaus prohibit access to such entities.  The best way to review your credit, update or dispute accounts is to use the free resources offered by www.annualcreditreport.com.