Do I Need a Consumer Statement on My Credit Report?                              

A statement explaining your circumstances can be added to your credit report in the event that you suffered from financial distress due to the negative payment history on your account or more.

Potential lenders can view this statement of explanation upon checking your credit report. Such statements won’t conceal the negative entries in the credit report or reduce their effects on your credit report. However, these statements can help with discussing things with the lender. Such conversation can be critical in cases like mortgage lending in which manually reviewing your credit history plays a part in the decision-making process of the lender.

Different Types of Consumer Statements on Credit Reports

You can ask to add two types of statements to your credit report. These are the following:

• General Statement

General statements are applicable to several entries in the credit history or history as a whole. This is the type of statement that you describe. It is a form of statement applicable when, for instance, you were delinquent on several accounts due to extended unemployment and you want to include a statement to the credit report that explains it. A general statement remains on the credit report for 2 years.

• Account-Specific Statement

It is a statement associated to a certain account in the credit history. If you were delinquent, for instance, due to extended unemployment, a statement can be added to your account that will explain these circumstances. An account-specific statement will be deleted from the report once the account is also deleted.

Be Careful When You Add Statements

In case you want to add a general statement of explanation to an Experian credit report, contact Experian to eliminate the statement after the said accounts are removed from the credit report.

After the removal of the negative information, the statement might needlessly notify the lenders you had a payment concern before.

The last thing you want is for your lender to say that he didn’t see your credit report’s late payment but your added statement says you used to have issues.

While account-specific statements don’t stay on the report upon the removal of the account, you have to be careful when you add these, too.

There are two forms of account-specific statements. The first one that you describe is often harshly called a statement of excuse. These statements are less likely to improve the outlook of the lender upon your loan application.

But, when you missed payments because of extenuating circumstances like a declared or natural disaster, a medical emergency, or extended unemployment, it is a wise move to add a statement. You have to know that the consumer statements that are indicated on your report upon your request will be disclosed to others, including those containing medical information.

Another type of account statement is the statement of dispute that is way of presenting your side of the story if you don’t agree with an account’s reported status. For example, if you disputed the late payment that the lender claims to be correct, a statement can be added to inform prospect new lenders that you don’t agree with the account’s status and why. We are hoping that you understand all about Do I Need a Consumer Statement on My Credit Report?