Why it is important to check your credit report once a year and read fine print on contracts.

A Good thing happened to me this month…

When I was young(er)… exactly 10 years ago… this boy lived with this girl. They moved into an apartment, got a roommate and lived like that for a while. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out between the boy and girl. The girl split to a new place leaving the boy and his roommate.

She thought she played it correct when she sent a letter to her landlord, with the key, stating she moved out. Sent it by certified mail and kept the reciept for 2 years. After 2 years, she shredded the document when cleaning out her files.

Well, when the girl tried to move into a new apartment a credit report was pulled up and it had a civil judgment on her credit report for $2500! What?!?!

What happened? When the girl left and a few months passed by the boy and the roommate defaulted on the rent and got ‘evicted’. The girl assumed she was safe because she filed the paperwork, returned the key and never looked back.

Unfortunately, the civil judgment was found after the girl shredded the documents. She also found out that apparently the certified letter would not of officially taken her name of the lease. She was still liable for the rent.

Moral of the story: Read the full contract before you sign and check your credit report annually for potential discrepancies.

Oh ya, the good thing that happened to me this month? That civil judgment reported on my credit report for the last 10 years finally has been removed. 🙂