My credit reports are filled with small errors and I'm not sure why

[andrew_1911]

Today I bumped the reports from all three credit bureaus and noticed a ton of small errors. I’m curious which errors I should or even can dispute vs what are just there to stay.  

Examples of some of the errors in question:

Transunion shows my middle initial while the other bureaus don’t.

All three of my current addresses are either wrong or outdated:

Equifax shows the correct street address and zip code but the state shows New York as they refuse to acknowledge military addresses. (it should show AE for the state)

Experian shows my former home address, I’m less concerned about this as I still receive certain mail there because of companies not allowing APO or foreign addresses.

Transunion is mostly correct but it shows my box number twice ( XX Box XX PSC XX)

Former addresses are also a mess, certain addresses show up on only one report and others are completely butchered versions of former addresses. Not even close to correct and were at no point submitted on anything by me.

One bureau shows an almost correct name of an employer because I added it over the phone when I was attempting to get an address corrected. They ran out of room and just cut it off so I guess it’s fine?

Payment history is also a mess, I have zero derogatory marks ever however payment history seems to have been sporadically reported to bureaus.

My oldest card for example shows activity every month on two of the bureaus but absolutely nothing on Equifax. On my oldest card for example that has spending an payments every month it randomly stopped reporting anything after September 2022 then randomly restarted last month.

While Equifax has payment check marks for my Amex cards there’s no historical payment/balance amounts at all. Does Amex just not report balance information month to month?

For reference I never carry a balance month to month, always pay after statement generation and always have activity on every single card. Do I need to stop paying the day after the statement generates? I have a dozen cards so I just pay them every Sunday on whichever ones have had a new statement post. I don’t wait until right before the due date to make payments.

Is any of this normal or are my reports just messy?

[RSX]

name info - addresses - work history - ALL these items are generated when you apply for credit

a middle initial in one CRA doesn't matter at all - non issue

addresses outdated - these are historical entries - i have the last 3 addresses in my CRA report = non issue

addresses incorrect - historical - non issue

po box twice  = non issue

employer name  - likely the person typo'd it since it was over the phone  = non issue

amex payment history - is this a Charge card?  in which case they won't update a balance or line  = non issue

honestly - i wouldnt bother to dispute anything listed below

i would ensure that your next application has the correct info for address and employer - and maybe that will be reflected on all the CRAs - but there is no guarantee

your payment process is OK - not really necessary, but if it works for you - all good

i personally set AutoPay on every account - and have it pay the minimum on the due date

i also usually make a payment 2 days before the due date, with the full amount i want to pay on it - the AutoPay is a backup for me, in case i cant login in for whatever reason

[MarkintheHV]

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@RSX wrote:

i personally set AutoPay on every account - and have it pay the minimum on the due date

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I do this as well, saved me a couple of times from being late.  If the payment slipped my mind (happened twice), minimum payment posted and that alerted me that I forgot to make my payment, and I went in and made a real payment.

[CorpCrMgr1]

To me it's the way it is. A wrong middle initial on one report. A complete bastardization of my first name on another. Addresses that have no relationship to me on all. A P.O. box and I've never had a P.O. box. Mistakes on CL. My Mother's credit showing up on my report. And more.

The CRA's accept whatever is given to them without any proof. It takes substantial effort to have items corrected.

[RSX]

why pay $40 or $80 to resolve data that does not matter?

the questions asked was WHY is there incorrect data

the answer from all of us, is that everyone has that situation, but since it has NO impact on future applications, that it is just the way it is

and therefore not worth the effort or $ to try to resolve any of it

of course the OP is well within paying for a service - but it definitely isn't needed

[Brian_Earl_Spilner]

If you think the major bureaus are bad, wait until you see your LexisNexis report. 

[pizzadude]

I'll pile on here and just add that even if you spend the considerable amount of time and / or money, there's a very high chance that those errors will just reappear in the future and you'll be in the same place all over again. 

[CorpCrMgr1]

Totally agree. LN is really bad.

[CreditPoor]

To get this corrected takes nothing more than 5 minute phone call to each of the reporting agencies and 72 hours for updates. While many will say none of this matters and let it be, you must understand that in the world of finance these things can be red flags. Better to take the extra few minutes to ge it corrected and be accurate then to hope it doesn't matter to an underwriter. Most financial reviews are triggered as a result of discrepancies in a credit report.

[CorpCrMgr1]

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@RSX wrote:

why pay $40 or $80 to resolve data that does not matter?

the questions asked was WHY is there incorrect data

the answer from all of us, is that everyone has that situation, but since it has NO impact on future applications, that it is just the way it is

and therefore not worth the effort or $ to try to resolve any of it

of course the OP is well within paying for a service - but it definitely isn't needed

It could matter. The first CR that I fixed was for the president of the company where I worked. His information was full of wrong items from his son. They shared the same first and last name, but different middle initials. The son worked for the company and didn't have very good credit.

After several weeks I had the CB separate their information. In my humble opinion, the CRA should be held accountable for misinformation. It is against federal law to purposely send wrong information through the USPS! I've used this to correct information on my reports. My reports no longer contain errors. It cost me nothing but time and postage.

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