The Oak Tree

You probably think that everything on your credit report is 100% accurate, right? Well, guess what? That could be the farthest from the truth.

The majority, if not all, of the information found on your credit report is put there by creditors, not you.

Creditors are:

• banks - from loans you have taken out for homes, cars, furniture, etc.
• credit card companies - from all those plastic cards found in your wallet or purse
• utility companies – about how you pay your electric, telephone, water, gas, etc bills
• hospitals and doctors– if you or your health insurance have not paid their bills
• other companies you have done business with – cellular phones, etc.

Creditors are not required to furnish data about you or your payment history. It is an entirely voluntary procedure. The information is normally uploaded monthly via computer or computer files. The bureaus do nothing more than store all the information in the appropriate files according to the identification numbers, normally your social security number.

If the data coming from the creditor is incorrect, it is stored in the bureau’s computer the same way. The old computer saying rings very true in this regard “Garbage In equals Garbage Out”. Late monthly payments, incorrect loan or payment amounts are all examples of items that can be listed wrong on your credit report or reports.

I keep referring to bureaus and reports, plural, because there are three different credit bureaus. They are not connected to each other and they do not share information between themselves. The creditors must send their uploads to each bureau individually. It is not mandatory for creditors to send data to one bureau, much less to all three. Most creditors don’t upload to all three bureaus thus creating even more discrepancies between the three different credit reports.

…See Part 2 for the rest of the story…

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