Disputing Credit Reports

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Disputing credit reports is easier than you may have thought. It’s a matter of setting out a step-by-step course of action, getting some advice and forms from a company like Creditelves.com, and following through with your course diligently.

To start with, know that there are three major credit reporting agencies: Experian, TransUnion and Equifax. You can order your credit report for free once a year from each of these agencies; know too that it’s important that you get all three, because not every creditor reports to the same agencies. For instance, you might have gotten into trouble with a credit card company, and while they’ve only reported your delinquency to Experian, it still brings down your aggregate credit score to a potential creditor. Also, if you don’t get all three reports, you might be wondering why your FICO score is not so great, but the two credit reports you did get say it’s just fine. That’s because there’s probably something lurking on that third credit report that you haven’t ...
... seen. Go to annualcreditreport.com and fill out a simple online form for all three companies, and have them mailed, faxed, or emailed to you.

Once you’ve received your credit reports, it’s important to go over each one carefully. You need to make sure that each of the charges made in your name were indeed yours, and no mistaken charges have been made to your accounts. You also need to make sure that if you have paid off a balance on an account, that it has been noted on your credit report correctly as “closed, account paid.” Ensure that no unauthorized activities have taken place on any of your accounts, which could be an indication of identity theft; a whole separate matter that you would have to unravel.

Once you have either agreed with or marked disputed matters on your reports, you need a sample letter for disputing credit reports and separate charged items. CreditElves has several good examples, and all will include your account number, Social Security Number, a copy of the credit report with the disputed item highlighted, and an explanation as to why you think this is an erroneous charge. It should be noted that while Equifax and TransUnion will allow disputes like this to be conducted via mail, Experian requires that all disputes be carried out online. The credit report agency will then investigate the matter, and are obligated to give you a decision in writing within 30 days. If the reporting agency decides in your favor, follow up with another (free with dispute) credit report, and make sure the dispute has been cleared up. The creditor and credit reporting agencies must share this updated information with all three credit agencies, and it is your job to make sure they do so.

Follow these steps with each of the disputed credit items. As stated before, it’s a matter of diligence and follow-through, patience, attention to detail, and a little help from a website like CreditElves.