FTC: Credit Report Errors Can Take Years to Fix

It can be a long, frustrating road between identifying an error on your credit report and getting the mistake fixed.

In fact, the process can be so long and cumbersome that consumers give up, leaving unresolved errors on their reports, according to a report from the Federal Trade Commission.

In its sixth and final congressionally mandated study of national credit report accuracy, the FTC said that most consumers who had found an unresolved error on their credit report believe that at least part of the information on their report is still wrong. This report is a follow-up to a 2012 study that found 20 percent of consumers have an error on their credit reports.

The current report includes 121 consumers who had at least one error on their credit report. The FTC said:

It finds that 37 of the consumers (31 percent) stated that they now accepted the original disputed information on their reports as correct. However, 84 of these consumers (nearly 70 percent) continue to believe that at least some of the disputed information is inaccurate. Of those 84 consumers, 38 of them (45 percent) said they plan to continue their dispute, and 42 (50 percent) plan to abandon their dispute, while four consumers are undecided.

Now that it’s concluded its final study, the FTC is recommending that the credit reporting agencies work on a more effective way to communicate with consumers about the status of their disputes and their rights to access, review and dispute information they believe is inaccurate on their credit reports.

Click here for information on how to get your free credit report. If you want information on how to dispute a credit report error, click here.

If you need help restoring your credit, click here. Or if you want to repair your credit on your own, we have some tips here.

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