iFightDebt · Maryland Consumer Defense

Errors on Your Credit Report: The Five Most Common (and How to Fix Them)

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Nobody checks your credit report for accuracy before it is used against you. Here is what to look for, and what to do when you find it.

By Amir Guerami, The Guerami Law Firm, LLC · Posted August 31, 2026

Here is the worst case, and it happens in Maryland every week. You sit down to buy a house, finance a car, rent an apartment, or take a job that runs a credit check — and you are turned down over something on your report that was never true in the first place. Nobody warned you. It had been sitting there quietly for years, and by the time it surfaced, it cost you the thing you were trying to do.

It helps to understand what a credit report actually is. It is not a verified record. Credit bureaus are clearinghouses — creditors and collectors send them information, and they publish it. Nobody checks whether it is accurate before it goes on your file. Most negative entries can be reported for about seven years from the date you first fell behind, and a bankruptcy can be reported for up to ten years. Nothing in that system finds an error for you.

“A credit report is not a verified record. It is whatever somebody sent in — and it stays for seven years unless you catch it.”

The Five Errors We See Most

It is not your account. Mixed files happen when two people share a name, a similar Social Security number, or an address. Fathers and sons with the same name are the classic case. Someone else's late payments, charge-offs, or collection accounts land on your report, and the bureau has no idea.

An account you never opened. This is the fingerprint of identity theft. A credit card, a store account, or a loan appears with your name on it and a balance you never borrowed. These need to be treated as fraud, not as a routine billing dispute.

A debt you already resolved, still showing a balance. You paid it, you settled it, or it was discharged in bankruptcy — and the report still shows money owed. Debts wiped out in a bankruptcy should not show a balance due. This one is common and it is very fixable.

The same debt listed twice. When a creditor sells a delinquent account to a debt buyer, both companies sometimes report it. One debt becomes two entries and you look twice as far behind as you actually are. Watch for a charged-off account from the original creditor and a collection account for a similar amount opened around the same time.

Wrong dates. The most important date on any negative entry is when you first fell behind and never caught up, because that is what starts the seven year clock. Get that date wrong and the entry outlives the time it was supposed to be reportable.

Re-aging is the one to watch for. When a debt is sold and the new collector reports a fresh delinquency date, the seven year clock effectively restarts and an old debt that should have fallen off stays on your file. Compare the dates on the collection entry to the original account. If the collector's date is newer, dispute it.

Two Different Clocks — Do Not Confuse ThemHow long a debt can sit on your credit report and how long a creditor has to sue you are separate questions with separate deadlines. A debt can be too old to appear on your report and still be within the time to sue — or the reverse. Never assume one answers the other. Ask about both.

How to Actually Fix One

Start by pulling all three reports — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — from annualcreditreport.com, the free federal site. Do not pay a service for this. The three reports frequently disagree, because not every creditor reports to every bureau, and an error often appears on only one of them. Fixing it at Equifax does nothing about the copy sitting at TransUnion.

Then dispute in two directions. Send your dispute to the credit bureau and to the company that furnished the information — the creditor or the collector. Disputing only with the bureau is the single most common mistake, and it leaves the source of the bad data untouched and free to report it again.

Say what is wrong and why, in plain language, and attach proof if you have it: a payment confirmation, a settlement letter, a bankruptcy discharge order, a police report for identity theft. Once the bureau has your dispute it generally has thirty days to investigate — that can stretch somewhat if you send additional information partway through — and five business days after finishing to tell you what it found. If the furnisher cannot verify the information, it has to be corrected or deleted, and the correction has to be passed along.

Keep copies of everything, and note the date you sent it. If a bureau or a furnisher investigates carelessly and leaves bad information on your file after you told them about it, that failure has consequences under federal law. The paper trail is what makes that possible, and it is why disputes belong in writing.

• Pull all three reports from annualcreditreport.com — the real federal site, free, no card required — and read them side by side rather than one at a time.

• Go through every account line hunting for the five errors above, and check the dates as closely as the dollar figures. Circle anything you cannot explain.

• Dispute in writing to both the bureau and the furnisher, attach your proof, keep a complete copy, and calendar thirty days out so a missed deadline does not slip past you.

An error on your credit report is not a paperwork annoyance. It is money — a higher rate, a larger deposit, an apartment you do not get. It is also one of the few problems in this area you can begin fixing today, at no cost, without needing anyone's permission. If you have disputed something and it keeps coming back, that is the point to bring it to a lawyer rather than sending a fourth letter.

This article is for general educational purposes only. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Maryland law changes, and every case turns on its own facts. If you or someone you love needs honest guidance on bankruptcy, debt settlement, creditor harassment, and collection defense, speak with a Maryland consumer attorney about your specific situation before making any decisions.

Contact The Guerami Law Firm, LLC through www.ifightdebt.com for a confidential consultation with Amir Guerami and his team.