You apply for a loan and soon someone from the lending institution calls you to tell you that they are unable to assist you with a loan at this time due to your poor credit rating. You're shocked to hear that your credit rating is not good. You pay your bills on time each month and you make more than your minimum payment on all of your credit cards. How could your credit rating be low? You question the person on the other end of the phone and they begin to go over your credit report with you. Your pulse quickens and you start to panic, those delinquencies and collection accounts are not yours! You begin to think that you must be a victim of identity theft. Are you really a victim of identity theft or is someone else's credit mixed in with your report?
The fact is that 85% of all credit reports contain errors. These errors can range from minor things like your birth date being incorrect to more serious issues like the story above. All information on your credit report affects your credit score. Even if someone else's credit is showing on your report and they are paying that bill right now, there is no guarantee that in 2 months from now that they won't be delinquent on that loan. The goal of every person should be to have an accurate credit report reflecting only their debts.
Do you think that your credit score really doesn't matter? Do you think that your credit score only affects your ability to get a decent rate on a loan? If you believe this you are mistaken, your credit score affects so much more than just the interest rate you get on your loans or your ability to get a loan.