Back in February, I remember watching a report on 60 Minutes titled 40 Million Mistakes: Is your credit report accurate? The piece focused on a study that indicated that as many as 40 million consumers have a mistake on their credit reports. Correspondent Steve Kroft talked to several individuals who discussed just how hard it is to get any of the credit bureaus to fix mistakes, especially Experian.
Let's start off here with a look into one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States to date, identity theft. In order to properly and effectively monitor your credit report and your identity it is absolutely critical that you first understand identity theft from the traditional methods, all the way up to the more sophisticated digital, or on line methods. The idea here being that an identity thief is less apt to try and exploit a population of consumers that are well informed. Here are some statistics that will help you build a more broad understanding of the epidemic:
Experian, Transunion, and Equifax are the three companies that dominate the credit reporting market, tracking the financial prowess of US consumers. 60 Minutes: 2013 FTC Credit Reporting Study 60 Minutes investigated the stunning number of errors on consumer credit reports and how to make credit report disputes to Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. This information is sold to everyone from employers to insurance companies and creditors.
Looking at it from more of a micro point of view, it is estimated that roughly 19 consumers will fall victim to this crime every minute. On the average, it is approximated that it will take the average casualty 500 dollars and upwards of 30 hours to straighten out each individual account where an identity theft has occurred. Unfortunately, research has revealed that it is becoming more and more ordinary for criminals to actually prey on the individuals that they are closest to, an uncle or a grandparent perhaps.
After entering the number I was instructed that "online disputes are not available for your account due to security precautions, please call our customer service team for assistance". UGH! Step 5 - I thought this would be the most difficult part of the process, but it was quite painless. As a current customer (remember that 7 day free trial), I was routed right away to an agent and told them that I wanted to open a dispute, but was not able to online.
They're not doing a reasonable investigation," DeWine said. "They're not doing an investigation at all."
You will be afforded the opportunity here to review detailed and precise credit reports, as the credit monitoring service you sign up with will pull your information through the three major credit bureaus; TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You will have detailed access to every account on your credit report history in terms of the when and how they were initially established. Any time there is a noteworthy incident on your credit report that can significantly influence the particulars; a credit monitoring service will bring you up to speed and confirm that you are keenly aware of them. These extra set of trained eyes on your credit report are great for viewing it under the microscope with a fine tooth comb. Remember, they are professionals and a lot of the times they will pick up on things that you may have glossed over and missed. You gain the advantage of the identity theft protection that goes side by side with a credit monitoring service. The proper measures can be apportioned here by both you and your credit monitoring agency to terminate the identity theft in its infantile stages. For the criminal parasites that might try and attach themselves to your healthy credit report; they will exposed by the unauthorized user updates that you receive. Again, this leverages you to properly and effectively stop the crime before it gets out of hand. Lastly, there is the overall sense of well-being that goes along with knowing that there is a professional out there that's got your back in terms of you and your family's financial well-being.
According to Kroft, "it's extremely unlikely that anyone with the authority to resolve your dispute will ever actually see it."
Let's start off here with a look into one of the fastest growing crimes in the United States to date, identity theft. In order to properly and effectively monitor your credit report and your identity it is absolutely critical that you first understand identity theft from the traditional methods, all the way up to the more sophisticated digital, or on line methods. The idea here being that an identity thief is less apt to try and exploit a population of consumers that are well informed. Here are some statistics that will help you build a more broad understanding of the epidemic:
Experian, Transunion, and Equifax are the three companies that dominate the credit reporting market, tracking the financial prowess of US consumers. 60 Minutes: 2013 FTC Credit Reporting Study 60 Minutes investigated the stunning number of errors on consumer credit reports and how to make credit report disputes to Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. This information is sold to everyone from employers to insurance companies and creditors.
Looking at it from more of a micro point of view, it is estimated that roughly 19 consumers will fall victim to this crime every minute. On the average, it is approximated that it will take the average casualty 500 dollars and upwards of 30 hours to straighten out each individual account where an identity theft has occurred. Unfortunately, research has revealed that it is becoming more and more ordinary for criminals to actually prey on the individuals that they are closest to, an uncle or a grandparent perhaps.
After entering the number I was instructed that "online disputes are not available for your account due to security precautions, please call our customer service team for assistance". UGH! Step 5 - I thought this would be the most difficult part of the process, but it was quite painless. As a current customer (remember that 7 day free trial), I was routed right away to an agent and told them that I wanted to open a dispute, but was not able to online.
They're not doing a reasonable investigation," DeWine said. "They're not doing an investigation at all."
You will be afforded the opportunity here to review detailed and precise credit reports, as the credit monitoring service you sign up with will pull your information through the three major credit bureaus; TransUnion, Equifax and Experian. You will have detailed access to every account on your credit report history in terms of the when and how they were initially established. Any time there is a noteworthy incident on your credit report that can significantly influence the particulars; a credit monitoring service will bring you up to speed and confirm that you are keenly aware of them. These extra set of trained eyes on your credit report are great for viewing it under the microscope with a fine tooth comb. Remember, they are professionals and a lot of the times they will pick up on things that you may have glossed over and missed. You gain the advantage of the identity theft protection that goes side by side with a credit monitoring service. The proper measures can be apportioned here by both you and your credit monitoring agency to terminate the identity theft in its infantile stages. For the criminal parasites that might try and attach themselves to your healthy credit report; they will exposed by the unauthorized user updates that you receive. Again, this leverages you to properly and effectively stop the crime before it gets out of hand. Lastly, there is the overall sense of well-being that goes along with knowing that there is a professional out there that's got your back in terms of you and your family's financial well-being.
According to Kroft, "it's extremely unlikely that anyone with the authority to resolve your dispute will ever actually see it."
About the Author:
This particular article author is very knowledgeable about transunion dispute letter. Please take a glance at their web page for more information.
No comments:
Post a Comment