Disputing Bad Credit Entries With the Credit Bureaus
Once you receive your credit reports, be prepared to see errors. It's well-known
that credit reports contain errors over 50% of the time. When you dispute a
derogatory item, your creditor has 30 days to respond by either providing proof
or removing the derogatory status. "PROVE IT OR REMOVE IT!" For instance, your
creditors must be able to prove that you Read More...
Disputing Bad Credit Entries With the Credit Bureaus
(Continued) had a late payment. Many large
companies, like major department stores, actually lose information about late
payments. If you call to dispute a late payment, the creditor is required to
send a deletion letter to the credit-reporting bureau. If your credit report
shows late payments to a company that is no longer in business, dispute them in
writing because the information is no longer verifiable or available. If you
dispute these items in writing, the credit-reporting agency will automatically
remove them. Don't forget to look for any missing entries or information. You
may have several "good credit" entries that were NOT reported by one of your
creditors or lenders.
SUMMARY:
(1) Make a list of any debts you wish to challenge as untrue.
(2) Use the sample letters that can be downloaded
here.
(3) Send your letter via Certified Mail.
(4) When the credit bureau receives your dispute
letter, they will attempt to contact the bank or credit institution responsible
for reporting the negative information to your credit file.
(5) After 30-45 days you will be notified of the result, issuing a decision and an updated
credit file.
COMMON RESULTS of DISPUTES:
Negative entries are permanently removed from your credit report for the following reasons:
(1) Creditor did not keep proper records to verify their entry on reports.
(2) Creditor did not respond within their time period of 30 days, therefore the
negative entry was removed. (This is why it is important to send the dispute
form via certified mail. Not only to insure its delivery, but to have documented
time of when it was received. Your creditors are usually so overloaded with
disputes, they almost never respond within the time frame required by law.)
(3) Debts were not significant enough to waste their time.
Related reading:
Disputing Debts with Creditors and
Taking the Credit Bureaus to Small Claims Court
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