Dear Buyer,

Banks are a lot stricter with their qualifying criteria for loan approvals.  Low credit scores keep some potential home buyers without the necessary purchasing power to fulfill their dream of home ownership. Often times credit issues could be resolved rather quickly if the consumer was more aware of the current status of their credit.

Consumers need to be extra vigilant about checking for any errors on their credit reports, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

One in four Americans report they’ve found an error on their credit report, according to a study conducted by the FTC, which analyzed 1,001 consumers’ credit reports from the three major agencies, Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Researchers helped the consumers spot potential errors on their reports.

Five percent of the consumers found such large errors on their report that they could have gotten stuck paying more for mortgages or other financial products, if they hadn’t taken steps to correct it before applying, according to the study.

Twenty percent of the credit reports studied that were found to have errors in it were ultimately corrected after the consumer took steps to dispute it, which resulted in about 10 percent of consumers receiving a higher credit score, according to the study.

Consumers are entitled to receive a free copy of their credit report each year from the three reporting agencies.

Life is a lot less expensive with a higher credit score. Stay on top of your credit, check your report frequently, and maintain your credit worthiness along with the assurance that you will detect abuse of your credit or identity theft early.

Yours truly,

The team at Global Lifestyle 

Source: “Study: 1 In 4 Consumers Had Error In Credit Report,” The Associated Press (Feb. 11, 2013)