 TITLE: Should I Add a Consumer Statement to My Credit Report Due to COVID-19? CONTENT: How to Add a Consumer Statement or Disaster Code to Your Experian Credit Report\n-------------------------------------------------------------------------------\nThere are two ways to have the disaster code added to your credit reports. You can contact your lender or lenders and let them know you've been impacted by COVID-19 and you'd like the accounts on your credit reports to indicate this. They may add the disaster code to your accounts the next time they report your information to the credit reporting companies, but are under no obligation to do so.\nTo add a consumer statement yourself, the first step is to contact the credit reporting agencies and get copies of your credit reports. Once you have your credit reports, review them to decide if you feel the need to add a statement and, if so, which type.\nThe process for adding a consumer statement differs at each bureau, and the following information will be helpful should you decide to add a statement to your Experian credit report.\nFirst, it's important to understand that statements can be added to an Experian credit report at either the account level or the report level. This means you can attach a personal statement that speaks to your credit report as a whole if you've experienced hardship that's affected several accounts, or you can single out an account you may have had particular trouble with.\n*   **Account-specific statement**: Through Experian's Dispute Center, you can either choose a statement from a list of pre-written options or write your own statement of up to 100 words. Account statements will be on your credit report as long as the account it's attached to remains on your report, even if the negative information in question has since fallen off.\n*   **Personal statement**: You can choose one of several personal statements to add to your Experian credit report. If you've experienced financial hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic and missed payments as a result, you may consider adding a statement that says \"Delinquency due to natural or declared disaster.\" This type of statement will remain on your report for two years before automatically being deleted.\nOnce you have a statement added to your Experian credit report, it's important to monitor your credit to make sure the statement doesn't remain longer than necessary. Negative information will naturally fall off your credit report after seven to 10 years, so remove any statements that may allude to something negative that's since been removed from your credit report. END