Credit report contents may be surprising

When buying a car, renting an apartment, or even getting a job - a credit report is often pulled. What's on that report may surprise most consumers. According to a study by U.S. Public Interest Research Groups, one in four people have mistakes on their credit report. These mistakes have cost jobs, rejected loans, and ruined many people's lives.

“Credit is connected to our lives in every area and our scores determine our interest rates, insurance premiums and very livelihoods,” says Denise Richardson, consumer advocate and author of the new release Give Me Back My Credit! “We need to expose the high price consumers are paying for dirty data in order to fix a system gone terribly wrong.”

Richardson is just one of the millions battling errors on her credit report. She paid a little extra on her mortgage each month, hoping to shorten the length of her mortgage and pay less interest charges. That simple, recommended practice catapulted her into an epic David vs. Goliath battle stealing her true credit identity and a decade of her life. When her 10 year saga ended and she reclaimed her good name - that victory would be brief. Soon she realized others were shredding her credit and their illegal acts perpetrated against her would ultimately steal another five years from her.

“Knowledge is power, and consumers need all the power they can get in order to protect their money and good name. Without this all important knowledge, consumers are wide open to an array of problems that could find them as easily as they found me,” says Richardson.

Denise paints a human face on the insidious affects of identity theft, and inaccurate credit reporting. Having been through some of the worst corporate behavior towards consumers the financing industry is capable of , she is able to offer valuable advice, well-informed tips and knowledge necessary to protect a consumer's true and accurate credit identity. Here are five key steps to take to prevent credit errors from affecting your credit identity:

Check if your loan payments are applied accurately. Misapplications of your loan payments can prove costly.

Order your free annual credit report from the right place annualcreditreport.com is the legitimate government mandated site however; their privacy policy appears to allow them to sell your information. I recommend using the toll free number 877-322-8228. Watch for deceptive advertisements and websites that offer “free credit reports” but end up costing you.

Check the accuracy of open and closed accounts and any inaccurately applied late fees.

Check to see if paid off accounts are properly reflected as paid off.

Log all attempts made to correct inaccurate information in a day book or journal and send all requests for investigations of disputed accounts by certified mail.