Washington Business Daily

How do I eliminate open accounts that appear twice on credit reports?

I just pulled credit for a client, and one of his revolving accounts with bank of america showed up twice on his credit report. It's definitely the same account, I have asked the client about it. It shows up once with a four digit account number, and the second time, directly below with the same balance and payment, and a twelve digit account number. How much could something like this bring down his score, and how do I get rid of it?

Public Comments

1. dispute it with the reporting agency.
2. To get rid of it the client should be able to log into the credit reporting service over the internet (they'll ask him various credit related questions to verify it is him) and then he has an option to tell them about whatever changes/ errors are on the report. It'll take them awhile to verify everything but they that should be it fixed pretty quickly - and free.
3. He needs to call or write to them to let them know about the error so they can remove it. You can't do anything about it but the client can. It is his responsibility.
4. Your client will have to dispute or report the information on his/her credit reports. You should do this with each credit bureau. They will investigate and remove the duplicate account once they verify the information with the bank. I am attaching links to Experian and Equifax. You need a credit report number to log in. Also, TransUnion requires you to register fro online service in order to start an inquiry online. https://www.experian.com/consumer/cac/InvalidateSession.do?code=DISPUTE http://www.equifax.com/online-credit-dispute/
5. dispute it as a duplicate account -