TransUnion is one of the three major credit bureaus and plays a huge role in deciding if you get loans, what loans you might get, and the terms of those loans. To do that, it collects all of your financial data and distills it into a report. Lenders and potential lenders buy that report from TransUnion to determine if they should lend you money, extend you credit, give you a mortgage, rent you an apartment, or offer you a job. Therefore, your TransUnion credit report must be accurate and error-free.
But too often it is not.
Unfortunately, your TransUnion credit report frequently has errors and inaccuracies which affect your creditworthiness. When your TransUnion credit report contains errors, the mortgage companies, lenders, landlords, potential employers, and creditors do not get an accurate picture of you or your financial history. As a result, you might not get the apartment, loan, mortgage, or credit that you deserve and if you do get it, it likely will not have the interest rate you have worked so hard to get. Knowing how to dispute TransUnion credit report is essential if you want to make sure that your credit report is accurate so you can maintain your financial well-being.
What to Look for on Your TransUnion Credit Report
The dispute process begins with a careful review of your TransUnion credit report. We suggest that consumers do this regularly. Discovering an error in your TransUnion credit report before you apply for a loan or mortgage is better than discovering that you did not get the mortgage because of an error in your TransUnion credit report and losing the house of your dreams. While lenders pay TransUnion money to review your credit report, a federal law called the Fair Credit Reporting Act says that you can get a copy of your credit report for free. You can request a free credit report from TransUnion every week by going to their website or by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com.
When you receive your report, pay close attention to the following sections:
- Your personal information. Verify that TransUnion has recorded your personal information, such as your name, address, and Social Security number, accurately. Make a note of all misspellings or incorrect information.
- Your accounts. Examine the accounts section of your credit report. Check for any accounts that do not belong to you, late payments that you made on time, incorrect account statuses (open instead of closed), and incorrect credit limits or balances. These discrepancies can significantly impact your creditworthiness.
- Your credit inquiries. Because they affect your creditworthiness, TransUnion documents all the times that a creditor has inquired about your credit report. Note all the credit inquiries listed on your report and make sure you recognize and authorized each and every one. Unauthorized or unfamiliar credit inquiries may indicate potential fraudulent activity.
- Your public records information. Review any public records listed on your credit report, such as bankruptcies, tax liens, or judgments. Confirm that every aspect of these records is accurate and up to date.
A simple misspelling or an account left open even though you paid it all off might seem like small concerns, but they can affect your overall credit score in major ways.
Filing a Dispute with TransUnion
When you find errors or inaccuracies in your TransUnion credit report, you must dispute them if you want to correct them. The FCRA outlines the dispute process and TransUnionโs responsibilities in responding to the dispute.
Follow these steps to file a dispute with TransUnion:
- Gather the documents that prove the inaccuracies are inaccurate. Collect all the bank statements, personal IDs, mortgage statements, and anything else you might need to prove that the information you are disputing is inaccurate.
- Write a letter and file the dispute. Craft a simple letter explaining the error, the account associated with the error, and your relevant personal information. We suggest that you mail the dispute letter via certified mail. Why? So you can keep documentation of the dispute and because mailing the dispute letter preserves your rights to take legal action later on. Mail the letter to: TransUnion Consumer Solutions, P.O. Box 2000, Chester, PA 19016-2000.
- Contact a consumer attorney. You can contact a consumer lawyer at any point in the process, especially if the inaccuracy in your TransUnion credit report has already caused you some financial damage or forced you to lose an opportunity. When a consumer lawyer knows your situation from the outset, if TransUnion does not respond to your dispute appropriately, then you will have a legal advocate to fight for you as soon as legal action becomes necessary.
- Monitor the dispute. The FCRA requires TransUnion to investigate your dispute within 30 days of receiving your dispute. This should provide some indication of how serious your credit report inaccuracies can be – a federal law requires a multi-billion dollar company to respond to you within 30 days. If TransUnion does not fix the error or worse, just ignores you, they are in violation of the FCRA and legal action might be necessary. An experienced consumer attorney can help you with this and support you through the process.
Contact a Consumer Protection Attorney
If TransUnion is non-responsive or if you have already suffered some type of damage because of their error, legal action might be imminent and you should contact a consumer protection attorney right away. While TransUnion might correct the dispute properly and you might not suffer any negative impacts from their error, the possibility that you might suffer financial hardship or be ignored by a large company warrants securing the help of an experienced consumer protection attorney.
Conclusion
Credit report errors can have serious consequences. Consumer protection attorneys fight for consumers against credit reporting bureaus, background check companies, and any other entity that might treat consumers unfairly. They know how to dispute, negotiate with, and collect damages from CRAs like TransUnion. Call a consumer protection attorney if you have any questions about your credit report dispute or credit reporting in general. They will be able to help you fix issues with your credit report and also make sure your rights to sue are preserved should they discover damage to your financial health.