Gather together with 3 other adult friends and go out to dinner together. One question you may want to ask them, as well as yourself, is if they have checked their credit report for errors lately. In a recent survey, it was found that of all credit reports surveyed, nearly 25 percent of them reported some sort of error.

Many credit reports with errors go unnoticed to the person the credit report belongs to. While in some cases, mistakes may be small, others can cause huge dips in your credit score. These dips in your credit score can disable your chances to get jobs, acquire loans, as well as the ability to buy a new car or house.

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion – the three big shot credit bureaus in charge of processing your credit information – crunch a lot of data. To say it can get easily mixed up is an understatement. The most common reasons for errors on a credit report are due to credit users with identical names. Many times they are just filed on the incorrect report. This could cause you to see extra credit accounts on your report or a bankruptcy that you swear you never filed for. In one instance, one man that checked his credit report discovered he was listed as deceased!

If you believe your credit report has a problem, getting a reinvestigation on your credit report is absolutely free. The Fair Credit Reporting Act finds it necessary that credit bureaus correct any inaccuracies and errors to be corrected, however, due to the massive amount of information they go through on a daily basis, most of these credit bureaus won’t even notice any mistakes on their own.

Get active and contact them yourself to get the proper action done on your credit reports. To file something that you think is an error on your credit report, many credit bureaus now have online divisions that can help you deal with the problem however snail mail is still commonly used. To file by mail you will need to report several details to the agency in letter format.

• Provide your full name, home address, your date of birth, as well as your social security number
• The company you are holding the dispute against and the account number for the disputed item with them
• List all the reasons for your argument with your credit report, as well as providing a list of what the information should be and why
• Finish the letter by requesting for the proper corrections to be made

Make sure you’ve done your research before you apply for a reinvestigation on your credit report. The more copies of correct information and evidence of mistakes the credit bureau may have made the better. If in the end the credit bureau doesn’t accept your dispute, you can ask for your documents to be included in your credit file for future reference.

A credit report reinvestigation can’t delete negative facts – which can take up to 7 to 10 years to erase from your credit report - but if you feel there is honestly a mistake on your credit report, don’t fail to report it. It could be the difference between an excellent credit score or a poor credit score.