The only study on credit report accuracy of which the Credit Monkey is aware occurred way back in 2004 when the U.S. Public Interest Research Group conducted a thirty (30) state study on the subject.

(See U.S. Public Interest Group Research; One in Four Credit Reports Contains Errors Serious Enough to Wreak Havoc for Consumers, US PIRG Press Release, June 17, 2004). Their published report came to four (4) conclusions.

  • Twenty five percent (25%) of the credit reports reviewed in the study contained errors serious enough to result in the denial of credit;
  • Seventy nine percent (79%) of all credit reports studied contained mistakes of some kind;
  • Fifty four percent (54%) of credit reports studied contained personal demographic information that was either misspelled, substantially out of date, belonging to someone other than the subject of the credit report or was otherwise incorrect;
  • Thirty percent, (30%) of credit reports contain credit accounts that were closed or paid by the consumer but were incorrectly listed as open.

There is no reason to believe that in 2018 there are any less errors on credit reports than there were in 2004. In fact, with more and more companies reporting credit activity and with wide spread data breaches and identity thefts, there is good reason to believe that there are more errors on credit reports today than ever before.

Accordingly, the Monkey recommends yearly reviews of your credit reports for errors and to know where you stand credit wise. The Monkey also recommends that you review of your credit report 90 days before you make a significant purchase requiring credit. This avoids surprises and embarrassment at the time of purchase and lets your transaction smoothly conclude.

If you found this post helpful, please leave a comment, share it on social media or send the Monkey an email at [email protected].