Credit report disputes are inaccuracies on your credit report that can have a big impact on many areas of life....why?
Depending on your situation you may have found a credit report dispute by way of a loan denial resulting from errors on your report or perhaps recent news items about the frequency of errors have you worried.
It is best in all cases to obtain all three credit reports and carefully scrutinize them for errors.
If you do indeed find errors then you will want to prepare and send a dispute letter.
You will need to make copies of the credit report. One for yourself and one to send.
You should highlight or circle OR highlight and circle the errors you find.
Its a good idea but not required to call both the creditor that provided the information and the bureau that reported the info.
Always follow this up with a written request to correct the errors
your phone number
Below that you will put the address of the credit bureau that youare addressing this to.
Dear Madam or sirs;I am writing to dispute an item in my credit report.
The account status that you have reported should be updated.
A statement of what is wrong (late payments missed payment balance left on account paid in full ect.)
Company or Creditor name
the account number
status shown on the report
Enclosed is a copy of my report with this item circled.Please investigate this immediately and update my account accordingly.
Please send me a copy of your investigation results and an updated copy of my credit report.
Sincerely(you)your signature
Make a copy of the letter also and keep these in a easily accessible file as you will be following up.Send this letter by certified mail with a return receipt request.
This way you will have proof that you sent these items and that they were received by the intended party.
The credit bureau by way of the FCRA has 30 days yet I am increasingly hearing that the number may be 45 days to investigate and respond with the results of that investigation.
Please note that there may be items that you do not have the documentation to argue your point.
The FCRA says that as long as they are not frivolous meaning you are quite sure it is wrong and it can't be brought against you that you bring up disputes just for your own good.
The credit bureau still has to investigate and if it cannot bring up verifiable information to back their side of the dispute they have to delete it.
Another thing to note is that even though the written letter credit report dispute is suggested by the federal trade commission Experian does not accept this.
They will only accept an online credit file investigation request form.
The addresses for the credit report disputes letter are as follows
Equifax
P.O. Box 740256
Atlanta, GA. 30374-0241
Trans Union
2 Baldwin Place
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA. 19022
www.Experian.com/disputes
At Experian you will be given three options
One being a page that will ask you to have a current copy of your credit report (less than 90 days) with a report number at top (you will have this if it's your free yearly report from them).2nd is if you have purchased product from them you can just log in to your account and hit the dispute button.
Lastly there's the buy our products option.If you don't have acurrent copy you can buy one from them but you don't want to do that if you still have the option of getting your free yearly one.
Also if you have been turned down for credit you have 60 days from that denial to request a current copy from the bureau that had the information that led to your denial.
If it happened to be experian then use that option first and then attack the inaccuracy after you receive it.
Follow up the dispute
You will want to follow up on the credit report dispute if needed. If after the 30 day period you have not received the results of the investigation you should send another letter.You may want to call first in case of their possibly taking the 45 days and snail mail does take time.
If needed write another letter stating that you have not received the investigation results, send a copy of the original correspondence and the date originally sent.
Again ask for the results and an updated copy of your credit report.
and your signature
Experian has a dispute result area on their website and reports that most disputes are handled in a much shorter time than 30 days.
If upon receiving the results and you are still not happy the FCRA states you may add a statement about negative items.
It has to be brief and explain why you think the item is inaccurate.
If after sending the follow up letter to the initial credit report dispute letter and still no results of the investigation are received (though this is highly unlikely) the next step would be to submit a complaint to the Federal Trade Commission.
credit report disputes to credit report repair
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