How To Fix Errors In Your Credit Report: A Step-by-Step Guide
Credit report determines your creditworthiness and influences the terms on which you receive credit.
Credit cards and loans are essential financial tools that allow you to make transactions even when you don’t have immediate cash. When applying for a credit card or loan, financial institutions assess your credit report—a summary of your credit history that includes details of your borrowings, repayments, loans, and credit card usage. This report determines your creditworthiness and influences the terms on which you receive credit.
A strong credit report improves your chances of securing favourable credit terms. However, errors in your report can negatively impact your financial profile. This makes it crucial to review your credit report regularly and correct any inaccuracies.
Follow these steps to rectify mistakes in your credit report efficiently.
Steps to Rectify Errors in Credit Report
Get Your Credit Report: You need to apply for a credit report from one of the major credit bureaus, such as Equifax, CIBIL, CRIF High Mark, and Experian. Usually, a person can get one free credit report in a year from each of the bureaus.
Check for Errors: The next step is to check your credit report thoroughly for any errors. Typical errors are incorrect PAN details, wrong spelling of name, wrong address, mistakes in loan repayment history, and incorrect loan/credit card closure status.
Raise a Dispute with the Credit Bureau: If you find a mistake, you need to report it to the credit bureau. You can understand the dispute resolution mechanism for each of the credit bureaus from their respective websites. Typically, you would need to send an email with the necessary documents, such as bank statements, to prove that the credit report has mistakes.
Contact Bank or Financial Institution if Required: If a bank or financial institution was responsible for the mistake, then it is important to contact them and ask them to rectify their errors. Once they realise their error, they will correct it and update the credit bureau about it.
Check the Credit Report Again and Follow Up if Necessary: It can take between 30 to 45 days for a credit bureau to resolve the dispute. You must check the credit report for the update and follow up with the bureau if the correction is not made in the report.
