What you may not have known about Credit Checks and Credit Ratings. MUST KNOW AND SCREAM ABOUT

[unblock]

8. i agree that credit scores are chock full of errors and the accuracy standards suck

basically, anyone can post negative information about anyone. it helps if you're a merchant or lender, but if you're willing to pay for a setup with one or all of the credit bureaus, they just take whatever information you give them (as long as it's formatted properly).

victims of any incorrect information are not notified, so unless they do their own pull and notice the error(s), they're in the dark until it noticeably affects their ability to borrow (or other situations as noted in the o.p.).

if you do notice an error, you can contact the relevant credit bureau(s) and ask that the incorrect information be removed. generally, they ask the merchant for supporting data and if the merchant fails to respond (i believe they have 30 days) then the information is removed.

however, sometimes it is a challenge. i became familiar with wasilla, alaska long before anyone heard of sarah palin because someone reported my address as being from there (id theft; i've never even been to alaska). it took years for them to remove it, they claimed that they didn't have to because it's not "negative" information. but they do.