"I work in collections myself," said Linda Barber, 44, also a resident of Fallbrook."I've always been a firm believer in paying my bills on time and having a good credit rating. "Most of the bad debts on Barber's report were listed with lenders and retailers she had never heard of. Barber's first encounter with 3 major credit bureaus is far from atypical. Cleveland-based TRW Inc. — one of the three major custodians of consumer-credit information in the United States — alone receives more than a half-million complaints a year from consumers believing inaccurate information has found its way into their credit reports. While consumer advocates and representatives of the credit-reporting industry disagree on how many of these claims are valid, one recent study found errors in 43 percent of credit reports submitted by TRW, Atlanta-based Equifax Inc. and Trans Union Corp. of Chicago.