It's Your Right to Dispute Credit Report Information
Many people feel uncomfortable about disputing information on their credit
report. There is a lot of free information available on the Internet (like this
site) about how to dispute credit report information, but because your
credit report is such an important piece of data it can be nerve racking to
dispute it.
I want to show you that repairing your credit report is possible, how you can
go about doing it on your own and using a credit repair professional.
How to Dispute Your Credit Report
There are 4 main steps to disputing a credit report error(s).
- Requesting up to date credit reports from the three main credit bureaus
- Reviewing the items listed on your credit reports looking for errors and
incorrect or out of date entries
- Contacting the credit bureaus with your disputes (one at a time)
- Waiting for the credit bureaus to respond to your credit report dispute
The three credit bureaus are:
- Equifax
- TransUnion
- Experian
Thanks to the Fair Credit Reporting Act you have a legal right to challenge
items that are in error appearing on your credit report. Of course it is illegal
to dispute negative items on credit report that are not actually errors.
Many consumers choose to hire a third party to handle their complaints with
the credit bureaus. The reason for this is to free up their own time, and
increase their chance of a successful dispute.
Professionals like credit repair lawyers spend every day communicating with
the bureaus and their clients. They know the ins and outs of credit repair
better then you or I ever could, and will help you make the right decisions
about which items to dispute and which items aren't worth it.
OK back to disputing credit report information. Once you have copies of your
current credit reports it's time to decide which items you want to dispute. As
mentioned above, it should be obvious not to dispute credit report items that
aren't errors, so keep that in mind.
Any item can be disputed, but some are easier to remove then others. This is
another bonus to hiring a credit repair lawyer or other professional. There
experience knows which items have a greater chance of being removed, and which
ones will have the biggest impact on your credit score. Not wasting time with
items that are tough to remove, or won't have a big impact on your score should
be a major goal.
Contacting Credit Bureaus
Each credit bureau has their contact info (mailing information) on their
site. If you're using a credit repair specialist to dispute credit report errors
don't worry about this part. You will want to draft a dispute letter to each
bureau and send it in via registered mail. Be sure you send it this way so you
have proof and tracking numbers in case you need them. Also be sure to keep
copies of everything you do, and send in. This is a good idea even if using a
third party to dispute credit report items.
The credit bureaus have 30 days to review your dispute and investigate it
with the creditor in question. After 30 days they must make a judgment to remove
or leave the item on your report. After you receive their communication back to
you, request another credit report. This one will be to review your progress.
Since you usually only dispute one item at a time, you'll see small improvements
over time, and tracking these improvements is important.
If you want to Hire a Credit Repair Lawyer
If you're thinking of hiring a lawyer to dispute credit report information be
sure to check how long they've been in business, how successful they've been,
and their cost. My suggestion to all my visitors is to check out Lexington law.
They've been managing claims for clients since 1991, and have a great track
record.
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