Credit Report Dispute

Prepare For Credit Report Dispute Battles

In addition to the psychological, wear a kick-butt legal hat. Don’t fire off empty lawsuit threats unless you plan to sue. Consider your attempts at repair to be that of a lawyer preparing a case before a judge and jury. A dispute can take you to places you never dreamed of, so always act businesslike in everything you do, from notes to letters to phone calls. Keep your cool and pray for patience. You’ll need it.

The Fair Credit Billing Act

The Fair Credit Billing Act requires creditors to correct errors promptly without damage to your credit rating and must respond to your inquiry within 30 days of your written request. Be sure to send these requests via certified mail, receipt requested, so you have a record of who signed for it and when.

The Credit Report Dispute Process

Any error that you dispute must be investigated by the credit bureau with the creditor who supplied the data. The bureau will remove from your credit report any errors a creditor admits are there. Keep in mind that a creditor’s records may be incomplete, lost or hopelessly misfiled. Some creditors may not want to take the time to research and find disputed data, correctly thinking that they are in business to make money, not to chase ghost accounts already written off. If that’s the case, you’ll win because the creditor may not even respond to the bureau, the bureau won’t be able to verify the questioned data and it will be removed.

Dispute everything. Errors include data entries of something you didn’t buy or authorize, amounts that differ from what you actually paid, different purchase dates, items not properly identified, items that you didn’t accept delivery of, were not delivered as agreed, or delivered to a wrong address, math errors, missing payments made or absent credits to your account, wrong addresses and anything else that may or may not apply to you.

Not All Negatives Go Away

Repairing your credit doesn’t mean that you can wave a magic wand and make the bad stuff go away. Negatives will remain if you were responsible for them.

Enter Dispute Statements Into Your Record

Should the credit bureau rule against you and verify that a negative will remain, you still have the option to file a short 100-word credit report dispute statement and lessen any damage that may result. The best weapon you have is time. All negatives must come off your report in seven years. Bankruptcies in 10. This doesn‘t meant they always do, which is another good reason for constantly monitoring your report.