Myths About Credit Reports

We've heard about the five-second rule in consuming food that landed on the floor or about the fatal danger of dropping a penny from the top of a really tall building. They seemed to make sense (or at least we want them to) at some point but the smarter ones know these are nothing but myths. They're amusing at least but still myths.

Credit reports also have their own share of urban legends. One of the popular myths about credit reports is that you can hire someone to make them fabulously spotless. You can correct erroneous data on your credit report but there's just no way you can change the fact that you maxed out on your two credit cards or you missed your car payments.

There are companies that boast of making credit reports attractive even to the most stringent lender. What they actually do is file tons of dispute letters to the credit bureaus. If the dispute is found to be accurate then, the report is corrected. Otherwise, you're stuck with a credit report you deserve. No bailing out on this one, I'm afraid.

Another misguided belief about credit reports is that they can instantly be cleaned up with debt payments. The reason credit reports are also called credit history is precisely because they are an accumulation of your credit action over time. Your missed payments and record of bankruptcy will still be there until the mandated time of their deletion even if you have paid your debts. The good news though is that reducing debts is a good step in improving your credit report.