Consumer Confidential: Your credit score may have just gone up, but that doesn't mean you can rest easy

First the good news: Your credit score may have just gone up. That's because the big credit agencies have cleaned house a bit, removing outdated info that may have been weighing on your creditworthiness.

The bad news: You can't rest easy. There's still a better than fair chance you've got obsolete or mistaken data in your credit file, and fixing it can be like running an obstacle course.

"The whole thing is a major pain in the butt," said Linda Sherry, director of national priorities for the advocacy group Consumer Action.

"It shows that their business is not about helping consumers," she told me. "It's about