How Do I Dispute My Credit Report?
You can dispute an item on your credit report by writing a dispute letter. In this letter you must include your name, the item, the reason, and any other related information.
Once the bureaus get your letter and deem it valid they will investigate. They will contact the lender and ask them to verify the item, the amounts and dates on it. If the lender is unable to verify the account then the bureau must remove the mark from your report.
Removing negative item is the most effective method to fix a bad rating. When you do this you are clearing your negative payment history. When your FICO score is calculated it will look at your payment history and weighs that into a formula with some other factors to spit out that all important three digit credit score.
While you remove negative items, make sure you are paying your current bills on time and if you can take on any new lines of credit that will help too. This is because it will be more accounts reporting positively to the bureaus.
Unfortunately removing bad credit isn’t as easy as just writing a letter. Typically you will get a response that asks you to send in more information before the bureau will deem your dispute valid.
This is nothing more than operating procedure for the bureaus and their method to respond to disputes. We need to look at our credit system briefly to understand why the bureaus would be hesitant to have accurate information about us in our credit file.
The bureaus first and foremost are private businesses; they earn profits just like your local grocery store except their profits are in the billions of dollars every year. With this large of an industry the bureaus have influenced Washington.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was passed many years ago and this piece of legislation gives you the right to dispute items on your report. This law is also what says an item can not remain on file for any longer than seven years, and if you read this law there is nothing said about the minimum amount of time. In other words it is completely legal to remove bad credit without waiting seven years.
While this law gives you the right to challenge an item it has been watered down by our politicians. The bureaus have influenced Washington enough that now a bureau must first decide your dispute is valid before they will investigate it. We assume this is a result of lobbyists and politicians because if you take one look at the bureaus history they would be the last to decided to if they should investigate. They have been fined time and time again for violating the FCRA.
The most notorious instance of this violation was when the bureaus were forced to open phone lines to handle consumer disputes; however the bureaus did not employ people to actually answer these phones. All three bureaus were collectively fined, however only a meager sum for such a huge industry!
To add to this the bureaus have no financial incentive to ensure that your report is accurate. They are selling it to lenders and will regardless of the accuracy of your information. Don’t get discouraged with these tactics keep working and if you get frustrated consider hiring a professional credit repair company.
For a free credit consultation call 1-800-232-2903 or for more about how you can file a Credit Dispute including access to a free customizable dispute letter visit us, or for information about how Credit Repair Companies work.