Don’t Let A Credit Error Prevent You From Living Your Life!
If you think of capitalism as a building, a towering, modern skyscraper, hundreds of feet of sheer cliff of steel and glass and human ingenuity and corruption straight into the air, all the good and the bad and everything in between, then credit is the load bearing beams within it. The life and blood of a capitalist economy, credit gets a bad rep. The “rich-getting-richer” factor aside, reliance on credit on the part of a consumer is often regarded as irresponsible behavior. We’ve all heard the horror stories of young impressionable college-aged youths, who took out one too many credit cards. For the rest of us, however, credit, even with all its pitfalls and all its “dog-eat-dogness,” is a useful, even essential, tool for survival in the capitalism-based, mixed economy of the United States. In fact, very few of us pay for our cars or homes without relying on credit. Is it any surprise, then, that many of us treasure our credit scores?
Unfortunately, valuing credit doesn’t necessarily translate into increased vigilance on the part of American consumers when it comes to protecting their credit scores. A recent story by CNN revealed that 2.2% of consumer credit reports, published by the big three of credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion, contain sufficiently grievous errors to deprive American consumers of the full benefit of their credit score. This means that about 10 million Americans are purchasing credit at higher prices than they deserve. Some consumers are being effectively barred from purchasing homes or cars due to the misreporting on their credit reports.
While reports of credit report errors are at an all time high, it is obvious that many Americans are failing to fight for their rights. Mostly, this is due to the fact that only 1 in 5 of American consumers check their credit scores. But also, the process of disputing a credit error isn’t exactly well-known. It is thus probable that only a small minority of consumers are even aware of the fact that the Federal Fair Credit Report Act provides them with affirmative relief. The Fair Credit Report Act details a mechanism by which a consumer can dispute an incorrect credit entry, and if that entry isn’t corrected within a certain time, the Fair Credit Report Act authorizes a consumer to file a legal action for damages, attorney’s fees, and costs in federal court.
So, don’t let a credit error prevent you from living your life! Take action today! For more information, please contact the attorneys at the Law Firm of Grigaltchik & Galustov, P.A. at (904) 738-8398.