Have you found errors on your credit report?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has flexed its muscles on behalf of consumers again -- taking on the job of overseeing the nation's powerful credit-reporting bureaus.

Too much government regulation, you say? Others might think: It's long overdue.

Credit bureaus -- the biggest by far are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion -- compile the credit histories and credit scores that greatly influence whether you get a mortgage or other consumer loans and how much interest you'll pay. They extend their tentacles into other areas of your life, including insurance rates, apartment leases and even employment.

If your credit reports contain a mistake, it can be costly. So, is it too much to expect that credit bureaus get your information right? How often don't they?

"Credit scars," an eye-opening investigation by The Columbus Dispatch, examined nearly 30,000 consumer complaints filed with state and federal agencies about the three big credit bureaus. The complaints covered everything from wrong names to erroneous past-due accounts. (Post continues below.)

The Dispatch also said: 

Nearly 200 people told the FTC that their credit reports listed them as deceased, cutting off their ability to access credit.

More than half of all who filed complaints with the FTC said that despite their best efforts, they could not persuade the three major credit-reporting agencies to fix the problems.

Says The New York Times, "Various reports have found that between 1% and 25% of credit reports contain errors that could hurt consumers' ability to borrow."

It happened to Washington Post personal-finance columnist Michelle Singletary. She wrote:

A storage company claimed I owed them money. I contacted the credit bureau (the company had reported the damaging data only to one bureau) and disputed the information. The bureau then asked the company that reported the information to verify the debt. What do you think the storage company did?

They reported back the same wrong information, reducing my credit score by about 100 points.

After more complaints by Singletary, the erroneous information on her credit report was finally removed.

Several years ago, an associate editor at Kiplinger detailed her prolonged effort to strip an erroneous 4-year-old past-due $38 water bill from two of her credit reports. One of her credit scores rose by 80 points after she got the debt removed.

Another New York Times story mentioned a woman who "had been denied employment and credit because her filing was mixed up with a felon who had the same name and birthday."

The CFPB's new oversight will apply to the 30 largest credit-reporting agencies in the United States. The big three credit bureaus alone each have credit histories on more than 200 million American adults. It's extremely likely you're among them.

New rules are coming, and it appears that many consumers support more regulation of the financial institutions that have so much power over us.  A new poll found that 66% of voters overall and 69% of independents think the CFPB is needed. (The poll was done for AARP, the Center for Responsible Lending, Americans for Financial Reform and the National Council of La Raza.)

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In the meantime, if you find an error on your credit reports, the Federal Trade Commission explains how to dispute them. Also, the NYT's Bucks blog has an excellent post explaining your options.

First step: You can pull one free report a year from each of the big three credit bureaus at AnnualCreditReport.c​om.

Have you found an error in one of your credit reports? How easy was it to dispute and get results?

More on MSN Money:

• How $5 ruined my credit score
• 7 weird ways to hurt your credit score
• 4 credit tips for newlyweds
• More earning near-perfect credit scores
• Do I have too much debt?
• Who's at risk for credit report errors?