Woman fights $16K credit report error

If you're one of the growing number of people who plan to make financial resolutions for 2013 -- 46% will, says Fidelity Investments -- let one of them be to pull a copy of each of your three major credit reports.

Who knows what mistakes are lingering there, damaging your credit scores and your ability to get a decent interest rate on a credit card or loan.

Case in point: A Roseville, Calif., woman pulled a credit report and found it listed a 2007 court judgment for $16,159 owed on a Chase credit card, according to a story on CBS Sacramento, although she did not possess a Chase card. She suspected identity theft was involved.

Heather Rose told consumer reporter Kurtis Ming that she didn't get any help from Chase or from the two credit bureaus, Equifax and TransUnion,  where she filed error disputes -- until she shared her story with the media.

"Those bureaus tell us they have no records of Rose filing disputes until after we got involved," Ming wrote.

Chase finally issued a letter clearing her of the debt, and the credit bureaus removed the error from her credit reports, the news report said.

Ming also notes that if the credit bureaus don't respond to a dispute, you can now contact the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You can file an online complaint on the CFPB website on issues pertaining to credit reports, credit cards, other bank services, car and other consumer loans, student loans, mortgages and money transfers.

Of course, you won't know if there's an error on your credit report unless you take a look, and the CFPB says that only one in five consumers does every year (.pdf file). An error could cmoe from something as simple as a data entry typo, or from the result of an illegal act, such as a crook opening accounts in your name.

The New York Times' Bucks blog says only 16 million people get free credit reports through AnnualCreditReport.c​om, a website that exists specifically for that purpose. There, you're entitled to one free report every year from each of the three major bureaus. It's widely recommended that you pull a different report every four months.

"By comparison, 26 million people obtained their reports though various credit monitoring services, which generally require consumers to pay for access to the information," The Times said.

The Federal Trade Commission is expected to issue a major study on credit reporting accuracy in 2014.

Have you resolved to pull your free credit reports? If you've had a problem with accuracy, were you satisfied with the way the dispute was handled?

More from MSN Money:

• Why short sales trash your credit
• 10 worst government data breaches
• Will a car crash wreck your credit?
• Smart Spending on the go: Get our app for Android or iPhone
• Should you pay to be erased? 
• 4 costly credit card missteps