Inaccuracies on credit reports cost consumers thousands of dollars every year. Approximately 80% of Americans have inaccuracies on their credit reports. What causes these inaccuracies? How do they affect your ability to purchase with credit or obtain a job? What can you do about these inaccurate items?

A recent study by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, for example, found that four out of every five credit reports contained errors, and one in four contained errors serious enough to result in the denial of credit or denial of an employment application.

Among the major credit report accuracy findings of the survey:

Twenty-nine percent (29%) of the credit reports contained serious errors - false delinquencies or accounts that did not belong to the consumer - that could result in the denial of credit;

Forty-one percent (41%) of the credit reports contained personal demographic identifying information that was misspelled, long-outdated, belonged to a stranger, or was otherwise incorrect;

Twenty percent (20%) of the credit reports were missing major credit, loan, mortgage, or other consumer accounts that demonstrate the creditworthiness of the consumer;

Twenty-six percent (26%) of the credit reports contained credit accounts that had been closed by the consumer but incorrectly remained listed as open;

Altogether, 70% of the credit reports contained either serious errors or other mistakes of some kind. Among the survey's major access to credit report findings:

Of the consumers that did obtain their credit reports, at least 14% of them were forced to call back 3 or more times after receiving busy signals or had to write a letter in order to receive their report; and 12% of the consumers waited two weeks or longer to receive their report once they finished requesting it. It took more than a month for one California man to receive his report.

Overall, 15% of consumers who attempted to participate in the survey either made at least 3 phone calls and never got through or requested their reports but never received them.

According to a study by the Consumer Federation of America and the National Credit Reporting Association four percent of the cases showed that consumers had a margin of at least 100 points between the three credit bureau scores. The causes of these errors are many: typographical, merging of consumer information by creditors, similar names or residences of consumers, or incomplete information provided by lenders.