How To Correct Credit Report Disputes

Correcting Your Credit Report Errors or Fixing Credit Report Mistakes

One of the simplest things you can do to start fixing your credit or repair your credit is to check you current annual credit report online and immediately sit down and dispute the report by writing a letter by using our easy sample credit dispute letter.

Under the FCRA, both the consumer reporting company and the information provider (that is, the person, company, or organization that provides information about you to a consumer reporting companyor credit bureau) are both responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information in your report. To take advantage of all your rights under this law, contact both the consumer reporting company (credit report bureau) and the information provider. Get A Free Credit Report

Credit Report Dispute

First thing to do to fix credit report-
Tell the credit bureau, credit report bureau or consumer reporting company, in writing, what information you think is inaccurate. Include copies (NOT originals) of documents that support your position. In addition to providing your complete name and address, your letter should clearly identify each item in your report you dispute, state the facts and explain why you dispute the information, and request that it be removed or corrected. You may want to enclose a copy of your report with the items in question circled. Your letter may look something like the one on page 4. Send your letter by certified mail, “return receipt requested,” so you can document what the consumer reporting company received. Keep copies of your dispute letter and enclosures.

Consumer reporting companies or credit bureaus must investigate the items in question—usually within 30 days—unless they consider your dispute frivolous. They also must forward all the relevant data you provide about the inaccuracy to the organization that provided the information. After the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the consumer reporting company, it must investigate, review the relevant information, and report the results back to the consumer reporting company. If the information provider finds the disputed information is inaccurate, it must notify all three nationwide consumer reporting companies so they can correct the information in your file. Credit Repair Myself

When the investigation is complete, the consumer reporting company must give you the results in writing and a free copy of your credit report if the credit dispute results in a change. This free report does not count as your annual free report. If an item is changed or deleted, the consumer reporting company or credit report bureau cannot put the disputed information back in your file unless the information provider verifies that it is accurate and complete. The consumer reporting company also must send you written notice that includes the name, address, and phone number of the information provider.

If you ask, the consumer reporting company or credit bureau must send notices of any corrections to anyone who received your report in the past six months. You can have a corrected copy of your report sent to anyone who received a copy during the past two years for employment purposes.

If an investigation doesn’t resolve your dispute with the consumer reporting company, you can ask that a statement of the dispute be included in your file and in future reports. You also can ask the consumer reporting company to provide your statement to anyone who received a copy of your report in the recent past. You can expect to pay a fee for this service.

Next--
Tell the creditor or other information provider, in writing, that you dispute an item. Be sure to include copies (NOT originals) of documents that support your position. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If the provider reports the item to a consumer reporting company or credit bureau, it must include a notice of your credit report dispute. And if you're correct—that is, if the information is found to be inaccurate—the information provider may not report it again.

Adding Accounts to Your File
Your credit report file may not reflect all your credit accounts. Although most national department store and all-purpose bank credit card accounts will be included in your file, not all creditors supply information to consumer reporting companies: some travel, entertainment, gasoline card companies, local retailers, and credit unions are among the creditors that don’t.

If you’ve been told that you were denied credit because of an “insufficient credit file” or “no credit file” and you have accounts with creditors that don’t appear in your credit file, ask the consumer reporting companies or credit bureaus to add this information to future reports. Although they are not required to do so, many consumer reporting companies or credit report bureaus will add verifiable accounts for a fee. However, understand that if these creditors do not report to the consumer reporting company on a regular basis, the added items will not be updated in your file.

When negative information in your credit report is accurate, only the passage of time can assure its removal. A consumer reporting company can report most accurate negative information for seven years and bankruptcy information for 10 years. Information about an unpaid judgment against you can be reported for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out, whichever is longer. There is no time limit on reporting: information about criminal convictions; information reported in response to your application for a job that pays more than $75,000 a year; and information reported because you’ve applied for more than $150,000 worth of credit or life insurance. There is a standard method for calculating the seven-year reporting period. Generally, the period runs from the date that the event took place. Credit Repair Myself

Sample Credit Dispute Letter

Date
Your Name
Your Address, City, State, Zip Code
Complaint Department

Name of Company
Address
City, State, Zip Code

Dear Sir or Madam:

I am writing to dispute the following information in my file. I have circled the items I dispute on the attached copy of the report I received.

This item (identify item(s) disputed by name of source, such as creditors or tax court, and identify type of item, such as credit account, judgment, etc.) is (inaccurate or incomplete) because (describe what is inaccurate or incomplete and why). I am requesting that the item be removed (or request another specific change) to correct the information.

Enclosed are copies of (use this sentence if applicable and describe any enclosed documentation, such as payment records, court documents) supporting my position. Please reinvestigate this (these) matter(s) and (delete or correct) the disputed item(s) as soon as possible.

Sincerely,
Your name

Enclosures: (List what you are enclosing.)
 

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them.  The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Many people have disputed the errors on their credit report and have had a satisfactory outcome.  It's easy, just print out this credit report dispute letter except the name, date and addresss lines and the enclosure in parentheses, and add that credit information after it is printed out or retype.