So you’re probably wondering; What is a credit dispute letter and how does this benefit you through the credit repair process? How do credit disputes work and why? Well, I’m here to tell you that you came to the right blog, I’m going to explain everything to you so you can understand credit disputes and why they exist.
What is a credit dispute letter and how do they work?
A credit dispute letter is when you believe that something on your credit report is inaccurate or unverifiable, then you would file a dispute letter with the credit bureaus or original creditor to notify them. After your dispute is filed, the bureaus and creditors have 30 days to investigate your claims. If they can not verify the information you disputed or any part of the disputed information comes back as inaccurate, then the account would qualify to be deleted from your credit report. Also, if the original creditor or credit bureau can’t verify or validate the information within the 30 day period, then they are mandated to remove the disputed item from your credit report. You can send a credit dispute letter anytime you believe that something on your credit report is inaccurate or unverifiable. Once the dispute is filed, the burden of proof is placed upon the creditor or credit bureaus to prove that the information they are reporting is actually 100% accurate, timely and verifiable.
Credit Dispute Letters were created thanks to a Federal Law that was enacted in 1972 called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA was put into place due to the high amount of consumers complaining about being taken advantage of by creditors and credit bureaus. Remember, Banks & Credit Bureaus Want You To Have Bad Credit!
Tips for your credit dispute letters
I am going to give you some tips for when you send a credit dispute letter. It can be a complicated process, so I obviously always recommend you work with a professional, but that doesn’t mean you have to work with me. If you would like to work with me, you can get started here.
Never Dispute Your Credit Online
You never want to file online disputes through the credit bureaus website, or any other place online. This can have a damaging effect to your credit repair efforts because disputing online takes away some of your legal rights under the fair credit reporting act. You can read the article we posted called; Don’t Dispute Online.
Never Dispute After You Got A Free Annual Credit Report
There are some loopholes in the Fair Credit Reporting Act that you should be aware of. Other than never doing disputes online, you never want to dispute right after you have viewed a free Annual Credit Report from the credit bureaus. The FCRA has a clause that states that any account that is disputed from an Annual Credit Report will have a 45 day investigation period instead of 30 days. This significantly lowers your chances of having the favorable outcome you’re looking for, which is to have the information deleted from your report. So make sure you pay for a credit report before you plan to do any kinds of disputes on your credit. My personal favorite credit report provider is here.
Always Send Your Credit Disputes By Certified Mail
You want to treat the credit dispute process the same as if you were filing legal documents, keep proof of everything, or it never happened. You want to send your disputes by certified mail with a return receipt. This will show the bureaus and creditors that you are serious about the dispute and you aren’t someone using online form letters (more about that below). You want to keep a folder of everything you send and when you dispute. Keep the return receipts and even keep the receipt when you go to the post office to send the dispute letters. The more proof you have the happier you will be if your rights are violated, then you can speak to a Credit Attorney. If you kept all the evidence, then the attorney will have an open and shut case. The best part about the FCRA? Attorneys fees are included and paid by the creditor if your rights were violated and you win the lawsuit. This means that most Credit Attorneys will work on a contngency basis, so you don’t have to pay anything out of pocket.
Online Form Letters Are BAD!
Form letters that are readily available online are a very bad idea when you’re going through the credit dispute process. These letters can cause your file to get red flagged by the credit bureaus. The bureaus have a system called OCR, Optical Character Recognition. If they see the same letter over and over, they know that you probably don’t know what you’re doing and your disputes will get tossed out. So always create unique dispute letters that are 100% truthful. Don’t say an account isn’t yours if it really is yours. Say something like, “I believe the payment history on this account is incorrect, please verify or delete.” If you lie on a dispute letter, or send a form letter, you will make it harder on yourself. There is no easy fix to bad credit, so never try to take the easy route.
If you are interested in our credit repair service, you can visit our site: https://www.BetterCreditGuaranteed.com
