Credit Report Dispute
To dispute your credit report you must send a dispute letter to each credit bureau. A dispute letter is a consumers method to challenge the accuracy or validity of a mark on their credit report.
In your dispute letter you must identify the mark you are disputing and provide a reason why it is inaccurate. Common reasons include; not my account, item is out of date, account paid in full, and etc.
It is now common for your credit report to have inaccurate and unverifiable negative information on it. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people have inaccurate information on their credit report and it is costing them money in high interest rates.
It is your responsibility to know what is on your credit report. It is also your responsibility to dispute and remove any inaccurate information.
Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act which requires the credit bureaus to investigate a dispute. However the bureaus often use stall tactics to avoid investigations.
This is because it costs the credit bureaus potential profits to conduct an investigation into a credit report dispute. Frequently a dispute letter will be responded to with a request for more information about the credit dispute.
The bureaus do this regardless of their need for information. It is an attempt to frustrate you and have you give up on your dispute. However with some patientce and persistence you can have a dispute deemed valid and an investigation conducted.
Investigations often result in marks being removed from your credit, regardless of their accuracy. This is because it only costs lenders money to verify a debt and often times this debt has already been sold and wiped off their books.
