Post by Rob W. Case on Jan 14, 2008 2:08:02 GMT -6
Folks, I cannot stress this enough. Always check your credit report, and get into the habit of doing so once every three months at least. What drives me to discuss this is a fairly recent experience which gripped me by surprise.
In October of 2007, I applied for a credit card. Knowing that I have perfect credit, it came to my surprise that I was turned down. I was charged with a “delinquency of payment.” When I checked my report, it claimed that I had an unpaid doctor bill of $216 towards an Orthopedic. Of course I’ve never been to an orthopedic in my life. I disputed the item and the matter underwent investigation, which took about a month. The point of the story is, if I not applied for a credit card, and been turned down, I would not have known about this doctor bill at all.
It is extremely important to police your credit report. Heck, it’s important to police your bank statements, your paychecks at work, and so on because mistakes happen, and that can cause serious problems.
What burns me about this is that this credit card offered a moderately low interest rate, all of which is lost now due to human error or even carelessness.
When I discussed the matter with friends at the church, my pastor shared with me an experience in which he caught something odd on his credit report. He said that he received a “negative” on his credit report due to an unpaid bill towards the University of Chicago. The problem was that he never attended the University of Chicago. The matter was finally settled, but the very idea that someone could have access to your information and make erroneous adjustments can make one a bit squeamish. Bad credit reports can lead you to miss opportunities, prevent you from making a substantiated purchase like a house or a car, and cause unnecessary stress.
When my credit report was finally corrected, I felt incredible relief. The scare was gone, but the opportunity of having a credit card with the lowest interest rate I’ve seen in a long time was still missed. Again, Always check your credit report.
In October of 2007, I applied for a credit card. Knowing that I have perfect credit, it came to my surprise that I was turned down. I was charged with a “delinquency of payment.” When I checked my report, it claimed that I had an unpaid doctor bill of $216 towards an Orthopedic. Of course I’ve never been to an orthopedic in my life. I disputed the item and the matter underwent investigation, which took about a month. The point of the story is, if I not applied for a credit card, and been turned down, I would not have known about this doctor bill at all.
It is extremely important to police your credit report. Heck, it’s important to police your bank statements, your paychecks at work, and so on because mistakes happen, and that can cause serious problems.
What burns me about this is that this credit card offered a moderately low interest rate, all of which is lost now due to human error or even carelessness.
When I discussed the matter with friends at the church, my pastor shared with me an experience in which he caught something odd on his credit report. He said that he received a “negative” on his credit report due to an unpaid bill towards the University of Chicago. The problem was that he never attended the University of Chicago. The matter was finally settled, but the very idea that someone could have access to your information and make erroneous adjustments can make one a bit squeamish. Bad credit reports can lead you to miss opportunities, prevent you from making a substantiated purchase like a house or a car, and cause unnecessary stress.
When my credit report was finally corrected, I felt incredible relief. The scare was gone, but the opportunity of having a credit card with the lowest interest rate I’ve seen in a long time was still missed. Again, Always check your credit report.