The Personal Information Section of Your Credit Report

At least once a year, you should request a copy of your credit report and review it in great detail.

While it’s easy to focus most your time on the public records and credit accounts sections, there’s something else that deserves your attention: the personal information section.

Your goal is to review each section of your credit report, paying close attention to every detail to ensure that there are no mistakes or incomplete information. Remember this: no one is going to do this for you; it’s up to you.

Since many people assume their personal information is accurate, they don’t spend too much time looking at this. Instead, they quickly jump ahead to the financial information.

When reviewing the personal information section, here are five things to focus on:

•    The accuracy of your name, address, and phone number
•    The listing of previous addresses (especially if you haven’t lived at your current home for an extended period of time)
•    Incorrect marital status
•    Incorrect information pertaining to your current and past employment
•    Incorrect birth date or Social Security number

It’s easy to believe that all this information will be 100 percent accurate, but that’s not always the case. Mistakes can happen, so you need to check on these personal information details every time you review your credit report.

If something is wrong, such as an incorrect Social Security number, it could result in other mistakes on your credit report, including information that can impact your score and harm your ability to receive a loan.

Don’t let an inaccurate detail linger on your credit report. Instead, contact the appropriate agency to report the error and better understand the process of having it corrected in the near future.

When was the last time you reviewed your credit report? Did you come across any mistakes? What steps did you take?