Have you ever had the thought, “I want to dispute my credit report?” The best way would be to write a credit dispute letter to your credit reporting agencies (CRAs). Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the CRAs must honor consumer’s credit report disputes and investigate the items they are disputing.
If you are interested in disputing your credit report, continue reading the article for clear instructions. If you already tried the steps below but didn’t see success, seek out a credit dispute lawyer and get professional legal advice. The lawyer will be able to tell you your options.
Call (818) 254-8413 to connect with an experienced lawyer. The consultation is free!
Here’s How You Can Dispute Credit Report Errors
There are a couple of steps you should take if you want to dispute credit report errors. You must provide, in writing, the items you want to fix and show documents that support your claims.
Unfortunately, this means that you have to make some efforts to get the dispute process going. Some of them include obtaining credit reports from all three national credit reporting agencies and actually writing the credit dispute letter.
And Yes… All Three Credit Reports
As the title of this section says, you must obtain all three credit reports from the national credit bureaus. The three national CRAs are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.
But why get a credit report from all three CRAs? The reason for this is because some businesses, like credit companies, may report to one credit bureau but not the others. If they report inaccurate information to only one of the three credit bureaus, there is no way to tell which one unless you check all three credit reports.
If you didn’t know, consumers are entitled to a free annual credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com. You can get a free report from all three national credit bureaus for free.
Some credit report errors can seriously impact your credit score and daily life, such as having a false criminal record or someone else’s debt appear on your credit report. It wouldn’t seem fun to have these kinds of errors show up on your credit report now, would it?
Writing a Credit Report Dispute Letter
Before starting on your credit report dispute letter, go through your credit reports and take note of all the information that seems inaccurate or erroneous. After that, you are ready to start writing the dispute letter.
If you are not experienced in writing a credit report dispute letter, check out this page to see a sample letter of one. In the letter, you should include all the items that you have taken note of before.
Once you have written the letter, make sure to include a copy of your credit report that has the items in your claim marked or circled (so the CRA can identify them quickly). This way, the bureau won’t be as likely to consider your claims to be frivolous and dismiss your claims.
What Happens After The Credit Dispute Letter
After going through all the steps into writing your credit dispute letter, you may want to know what happens next. Once the credit bureaus receive your dispute letter, they generally have 30 days to complete an investigation on your claims and resolve the issue. If all goes well, you will receive a notice confirming your claims.
However, this may not always be the case. If the bureau ignores or does not properly investigate, you may need a credit dispute lawyer to get the errors fixed. The lawyer can even get you compensation for the damages the errors may have incurred.
Consumer Action Law Group has experienced credit dispute lawyers who are able to assist in credit dispute issues. Call (818) 254-8413 to talk to a lawyer today. The consultation is free!
