How To Get Old Addresses Removed From Credit Report?
If your credit report contains wrong addresses that are out of date, then you may end up with a low credit score and this will disqualify you from borrowing any form of credit. Fortunately, it is easy to have old addresses deleted from credit reports most of the time through a few straightforward procedures.
The first thing is to order credit reports from the three credit reporting agencies Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union. Annualcreditreport. com provides three reports for each registered user once per year free of charge. Take your time and read through each credit report and look at all the addresses that are listed and that you do not live at or have any connection with. This means that it is important to take note of these obsolete addresses.
After this, you will have to compose letters of dispute to each bureau that has reported an outdated address on your credit profile. First of all, your letter should contain such essential information as your full name, address, SSN, and date of birth at the top of the page. Polite enough to say that the address on file is incorrect and that you would like the exact address removed from your credit report. Demand that the credit bureau conduct a thorough check of the records and request for the removal of the wrong address from your credit history.
Always enclose copies of documents supporting your dispute with the letter – a utility bill or a bank statement could work. This assists in proving that the old address is old and requires deletion to be replaced by the correct one. To be even more certain, it will be advisable to highlight or circle the outdated address in the credit report copy that you are retaining.
If the outdated address was with a previous residence then, the US postal services offer an official Change of Address form that will also assist. This informs the creditors and credit bureaus that you have at some point in time changed your mailing address and that the previous address should not be linked to you.
It is also important to remember that you should always send the dispute letter, as well as any evidence you may have, through certified mail, with a request for a return receipt. This enables you to record what the credit bureau received and the time frame it was received. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, credit bureaus are required to investigate a dispute within three days at most. Although, it may take up to 30-45 days to receive an address investigation therefore the process requires a lot of patience.
In case, the credit bureau fails to rectify the inaccuracies to your satisfaction then you can either file another complaint or write a 100-word note on it. For example, your dispute may state that the address is inaccurate or irrelevant to creditworthiness. This statement will be displayed on your credit reports meaning anyone who will be going through it will be aware of the concerns regarding the old address.
In case the credit bureau is not willing to cooperate, the last resort is to engage the individual’s creditor who may also be providing wrong information on the address. For example, if the old address was linked with a past auto loan or an apartment lease, let your creditors know about the new address so that they may update the records. Also, give them the right verification documents as per your discussion with them.
Stay vigilant also if an old address still incorrectly lingers on to avoid worsening your credit. Write new letters of dispute to the credit bureaus and send letters to the particular creditors not less than every 45 days. It is important that creditors and credit bureaus cannot lie about your credit in the long run and therefore your efforts should start to yield results at some point.
In some circumstances, you may end up suing a credit bureau for lack of compliance with the Act by not removing information that you have reasonably disputed. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a consumer can seek and be awarded damages, as well as costs incurred in court, in cases where credit report inaccuracies are not rectified after being proven to be false. However, seeking redress through the legal channel is often the final step to take in case all other means have been utilized.
The costs of carrying an outdated address report will be the effects it will have on your credit scores and the use of credit. This is because credit scores compel you to pay higher rates on your loans with low scores gulping tens of thousands in the long run. Besides, a lack of credit limits your purchasing power, and that means you can never gain more financially. However, by reading this guide on how to successfully request for the deletion of old addresses in your credit file, you need to agree with me that the above costs can be avoided hence keeping your credit profile as healthy as possible for as long as you can.
In conclusion, early identification of outdated address information and vigorous defense against such information is essential in preventing significant credit issues later on As long as consumers are determined to fix wrong address information, nearly all consumers should be able to eliminate adverse address information from their credit reports as a credit limitation. On the same note, the best way to notice and manage a mass of incorrect addresses is to check your credit reports frequently before they become a problem.
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