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Resources: Newsletter Articles:
Another Reason To Check Your Credit Report

The three major credit bureaus - Experian, Equifax, and Trans Union - maintain files on nearly 90 percent of all American adults. Those files are routinely sold to credit grantors, landlords, employers, insurance companies, and others, often without the consumer's knowledge or permission.

In addition to the threat of identity theft, sloppy credit bureau practices lead to mistakes on credit reports... for which consumers pay the price. Consumers with serious errors in their credit reports can be denied credit, home loans, apartment rentals, auto insurance, medical coverage or the right to open a bank account or use a debit card. Consumers may also have to pay higher interest rates when the mistakes incorrectly place them in the sub-prime, high-cost lending pool.

California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG) asked adults in 30 states to order their credit reports and complete a survey on the reports' accuracy. Altogether, 79% of the credit reports obtained from the national credit bureaus contained serious errors or mistakes of some kind:

  • Twenty-five percent (25%) of the credit reports surveyed contained errors that could result in the denial of credit, including false delinquencies or accounts that did not belong to the consumer;
  • Fifty-four percent (54%) of the credit reports contained misspelled, outdated, or incorrect information... or information that belonged to a stranger;
  • Twenty-two percent (22%) of the credit reports listed the same mortgage or loan twice;
  • Almost eight percent (8%) of the credit reports were missing major credit, loan, mortgage, or accounts that support the creditworthiness of the consumer;
  • Thirty percent (30%) of the credit reports contained credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer but remained listed as open.

In addition to the national credit repositories, there are specialty credit bureaus such as CLUE, an auto and home insurance rating bureau (we've discussed the CLUE database, used by insurance companies to track homeowner insurance claims). While the national repositories report on positive and negative payment history, many of the specialty bureaus only collect and sell negative information.

Other specialty credit bureaus include the Medical Information Bureau, which collects information about medical insurance claims history; tenant screening bureaus working on behalf of landlords; and numerous check verification and guarantee bureaus.

CALPIRG recommends that consumers order copies of their credit reports every year from the three national credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian and Trans Union), to identify and correct inaccurate information before it causes problems.

For more information, visit the State PIRG website, at http://www.pirg.org/consumer/credit/, and the State of California web site, at http://www.privacy.ca.gov/cover/identitytheft.htm.

Call me if you'd like the latest Homeowners Service List, which lists recommended service providers... or with any questions or comments!



Sherry Benninger

sherrybenninger@grubbco.com

The GRUBB Co., 1960 Mountain Blvd., Oakland, CA 94611

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