I was reading an article today that Dave Ramsey posted on Facebook about debt collectors. I thanked God that my wife and I paid off all our debt back in April of this year. I canceled my sole credit card. Paid off my X-Terra. It's a nice feeling.
So this article spurred me to get my annual free credit report. I know websites like freecreditreport.com are scams - they sell your information to companies. If you have good credit, they sell your info to companies looking for people with good credit. If you have bad credit, then likewise to companies looking for people with bad credit.
So I went straight to Equifax.com and to get all 3 reports from all 3 credit reporting agencies they link you to annualcreditreport.com
You do NOT have to pay for your report if you have not requested one in the past year OR you have been denied credit recently.
It had been over a year for me so I dove in.
The first report I checked was Equifax. Mistakes galore. It did not show that both my auto loan or my Capital One card were paid off back in April. It showed I was still paying on them. No lates, but still open none-the-less.
There was also a collection agency report for $846 from an account I took out in 2007... Um... I never took out a loan or credit card in 2007. The only one I had was the Capital One card. So I called the collection company. They told me it was from a Mastercard. Huh? Not mine. They argued it was.
So then I began the online dispute process. Equifax's dispute process was easy and allowed me to choose a reason and if I felt I needed to, I could comment with further details.
Equifax - Accuracy B- / Ease of Disputing is a Solid A
Now on to Experian. Their information was OLD. They listed my wife as my ex I divorced in 2000. They listed I worked for a company I had never heard of in my life. They said I had an American Express card back in 1999 that I used and paid and eventually closed. I have NEVER had an American Express card.
They showed my Capital One account as closed back in April. But they had no info on my car loan at all.
They were also showing the collection agency for the mysterious Mastercard I never had. But when I went to dispute it, they gave a vague list of reasons I could check off... none of which really fit my reason. And there was no way to comment to explain further. The only 2 reasons that could come close to fitting was "This is not my account, it belongs to someone at the same address" or "I have no knowledge of this account" - I chose the No Knowledge reason but I felt cheated. I wanted to explain that I never had a Mastercard. No knowledge sounds like it could be mine, I just don't remember.
Experian - Accuracy D / Ease of Online Disputing D
Now TransUnion - Oh My God. Are they still writing their reports in crayon? The site was horrible and hard to navigate. Everything on there was WRONG! Not only were they not showing my Capital One or my Auto Loan (which would help my credit) - they had things on there from the 90s.
So I begin my dispute and the process is tedious. I had to fill out the same information THREE times to finally get to the online dispute page.
The reasons listed did not match my reasons for disputing... this makes me nervous. I know they take the side of the creditor over the consumer.
I finally finish disputing almost EVERYTHING on their report. What a joke!
Transunion - Accuracy F- / Ease of Site F- / Ease of Dispute F-
Oh yeah... if you would like to know your credit score - ALL THREE agencies will charge you extra for that bit of personal information. It's YOURS, but you have to pay to get it. Amazing.
I say we do away with this crap and go back to a time when your Yes Meant Yes and Your No Meant No. The banks nowadays treat you like a number and not a person. Back when relationships and a handshake could make a deal. You were judged on your character and not what some innacurate computer says about you.
I would be sad to be a banker today. Just a robot that does a computer's bidding...
Tags: Credit Cards Report Reports Experian Equifax Transunion
