The Fair Credit Reporting Act, or FCRA, was passed in 1970. Recently, the law was changed to make it easier for anyone to dispute errors on their credit report. This can be done with a letter of dispute, and the credit bureaus must either remove the listing or confirm it. The best way to fix bad credit is to write a letter of dispute to one or all of the credit bureaus in the right format and send it via registered mail. Always keep a copy of your letters and the receipt from your registered mail letter in case you need to refer to them later. It's also important to make copies, not originals, of your credit report to send with the letter. Bel Here is a step-by-step guide to writing a letter of dispute to get those bad marks off your credit report for good.
Get a report on your credit.
Once you get your credit report and see that there is an error, an old listing, or a bad listing that has nothing to do with you, it is important to look over the details and dispute these mistakes first.
Make sure that you look at the personal identification information for each item on your credit report. A listing that isn't yours can sometimes end up on your report because it looks like it matches your information. If you start by disputing these kinds of mistakes, other mistakes on your credit report won't match your file anymore. Free Credit Report from Experian
Make a list of things to argue about.
Once you've made sure that none of your wrong personal information is on your credit report, it's time to look at the other bad things on your report. Make a list of these from worst to least bad. For example, a bankruptcy listing is much worse than a late payment or being turned down for credit.
When you have all the disputable listings in front of you, you can start writing your first letter of dispute. Even if these questionable listings only show up in one or two of the three credit reports, all of them should be told about it. If you send a dispute letter to the three reporting agencies for each questionable listing, it will make sure that these items don't show up on your other credit reports in the future.
Send each disagreement on its own.
Except for disputes about wrong personal information, all lists must be written out and sent separately. If you try to dispute several things at once, the agency is likely to turn down your claim because it is not relevant. At this point, you should be ready for the credit reporting agencies to complain or even threaten that your request to dispute the items is pointless or even illegal. This is not true. Credit reporting agencies are required by law to look into all disputes and accept them as valid unless they have proof that they are not. Don't give up, then.
Make your letters unique.
You might want to write the letters of dispute by hand instead of typing them out. Make sure you use strong words that will make it clear to the credit reporting agencies that the listing in question is being disputed. Some examples of these words are wrong, out of date, deceptive, or not true. Don't spend a lot of time trying to explain things in your letter of dispute. Explanations aren't helpful. When the reporting agency gets your letter, they have to look into the listing you are complaining about.
If you don't know how to write a dispute letter, you can find samples online and copy or download them by doing a search on your favourite search engine. These samples will give you a good idea of how to format a dispute letter and what details you should include to get the best results.
It will take the credit reporting agency between two weeks and a month to let you know that they have received your letter and are looking into your dispute. After another two to four weeks, the reporting agency should send you a new credit report to show that the item has been taken off your report.
Once you get the updated credit report, you can take care of the next dispute you have until you've taken care of all of them.
Some credit reporting agencies take a long time to answer or don't answer at all. If this is the case, you will need to send them another letter to remind them that they are legally required to solve your problem.
- Getting rid of things on your credit report isn't easy. You'll need a lot of patience and to stick with it and not give up. Remember that credit reporting agencies are required by law to look into your complaints, so don't let them make you feel like you can't get things taken off your report.
- There are legal services that will dispute the items for you for a small fee if you don't have the time or are having trouble with the credit reporting agencies.
