Credit Report Errors: The Most Common Ones and Why Immigrants Have More of Them

Why reports have errors at all

Experian, Equifax and TransUnion do not make anything up themselves. They collect data from banks, collectors, stores, car dealers and other companies. Every month they receive millions of updates. The data is entered by people and programs, and somewhere something always gets mixed up: the wrong date, the wrong person, the wrong status.

The bureaus match entries by name, date of birth, address and SSN or ITIN. If some data matches only partially, someone else's entry can end up on your report. And if a lender sent wrong information, the bureau will simply show it the way it received it. How a report is structured and where to find what — in the guide how to read a credit report.

The most common credit report errors

Here is what we find most often during reviews. Some errors look harmless, but they are exactly what later leads to more serious problems.

Wrong personal information

Addresses that are not yours, a misspelled name, extra versions of your last name, an error in your date of birth or SSN digits. Such an entry does not affect the score by itself. But it is exactly how other people's accounts get into your file, and sometimes it is the first sign that someone has used your data.

Accounts that are not yours

A credit card you did not open, a collection from a company you have never dealt with, a car loan in another state. The cause may be a mix-up with a similar person, or it may be identity theft. In both cases, such an entry should not be on your report.

Duplicates

The same debt is shown twice. This most often happens with collections: the debt was sold to another agency, but the old entry stayed. As a result, the report has two negative items instead of one, and the bank sees twice as many problems.

Wrong account status

An account you closed and paid in full is shown as open or with a balance. A loan that has been paid off is listed with a remaining balance. A card you closed yourself is marked as closed by the bank. Every such detail changes how the bank sees your history.

Late payments that never happened

You paid on time, but the report shows a 30-day late payment. This happens when the servicing company changes, when autopay fails on the bank's side or simply because of a data error. One wrong late payment can lower the score noticeably. More about how late payments affect your history — in the article late payments on your credit history.

Outdated entries

Most negative entries should leave the report 7 years after the date of first delinquency. Sometimes they stay longer. And sometimes, after a debt is resold, the new collector shows a different date, and the entry seems to «get younger». Such an entry affects the score more than it should.

Why immigrants have more errors

Immigrants have noticeably more errors on their reports, and there are clear reasons for this. The first is transliteration. The same last name is spelled differently in different documents: Harutyunyan and Arutyunyan, Kovalenko and Kovalenco. A bureau may take this for two different people or, on the contrary, mix you up with someone who has the same name.

The second reason is frequent moves. In the first years, people change apartments, live with friends, receive mail at other people's addresses. Every new address is a chance for a mix-up. The third is switching from an ITIN to an SSN. If some accounts were opened with an ITIN and some already with an SSN, the history may split into two files or lose part of the data.

• Different spellings of first and last name in documents
• Many addresses in a short time
• Accounts opened with an ITIN and with an SSN
• Similar names of relatives living at the same address
• Accounts where you are an authorized user shown as your personal accounts

Why one entry looks different in the three bureaus

Lenders are not required to send data to all three bureaus. Some report to one, some to two, and some to all three, but on different days. So the same account can show a different balance, a different status and even a different late payment date. An error may be in only one bureau.

Hence a simple conclusion: looking at one bureau's report is not enough. The bank may pull exactly the bureau with the error. How to get a report from all three bureaus at once — in the guide how to get a three-bureau report. How the bureaus differ from each other — in the article Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

Why errors are dangerous

An error on a report is not just an unpleasant line. A collection that is not yours or a wrong late payment lowers the score, which means you get a denial, a lower limit or a higher rate. On a $40,000 car loan, a difference in rate over several years turns into thousands of dollars. On a mortgage — into tens of thousands.

In addition, errors in personal information sometimes signal identity theft. If addresses and accounts that are not yours have appeared on your report, it is better to deal with it right away, before something else gets opened. How to protect your data — in the guide identity theft protection. Which entries count as negative — in the article negative items on a credit report.

How Excalibur works with errors

During the free review, an Excalibur Credit Solutions manager matches your report across all three bureaus: personal information, accounts, balances, dates, late payments. We show which entries look like errors and which of them affect the score the most. After payment, our technical team works with the bureaus on each disputed entry. Timing depends on the bureaus' responses, and results are individual. Prices are on the services page.