Inaccuracies plague 25 percent of credit reports

• Why you need to check your credit reports regularly: According to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG), 25 percent of all credit reports compiled by the three national credit reporting bureaus (Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) contain errors that are serious enough for credit grantors to deny credit applications. Even if an application is approved, the interest rate is likely to be higher, costing the consumer hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars.

In 2004, the U.S. PIRG conducted a survey of personal credit reports and noted the following:

• Serious errors included notations of credit accounts that were delinquent when they weren't and the listing of credit accounts that didn't belong to the individual consumer.

• Fifty-four percent of the credit reports contained personal demographic information that was misspelled, long-outdated, belonged to a stranger or was otherwise incorrect.

• Twenty-two percent listed the same mortgage or loan twice.

• Almost eight percent were missing major credit, loan, mortgage or other consumer accounts that demonstrated the creditworthiness of the consumer.

• Thirty percent contained credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer but remained listed as open.

• Altogether, 79 percent of the surveyed credit reports contained either serious errors or mistakes of some kind.

If you know you'll be applying for credit, especially for big loans such as a mortgage or a car, check your credit reports well in advance because correcting errors can take several months.