5 Steps to Filing a Credit Report Dispute

 In the United States, your credit rating impacts everything from your ability to buy a home to whether or not you are offered employment. Because of the importance of your credit rating, it is vital that information contained on the report be accurate. If you believe that information contained in your file is inaccurate, false, misleading, or out of date, then you are entitled to file a credit report dispute. In most cases, you can file your dispute yourself; however, a consumer law attorney can help you if your dispute is not successful or you run into problems.

Steps to filing your dispute:

Request official copies of your credit report from the three major credit reporting bureaus - Equifax, Transunion, and Experian. You are entitled to one free report each year. You can request your free reports at annualcreditreport.com which is the only site authorized by the federal government to provide them for free.

Review each report thoroughly for errors and make a list of them. Remember that you will need to dispute an error with each of the credit reporting companies so be sure to go through each of the three reports separately.

Write a letter to each agency explaining what it is that you dispute in the report. Be as specific as possible in your letter and include dates and exact amounts of transactions that are relevant to the dispute. Along with explaining the error you will need to ask each agency to remove or correct the information. Be sure to include your name, contact information, and any other important information in the body of the letter.

Make copies of any documents that will help substantiate your position and your request to have something removed or corrected in the report. Avatar HD Do not send originals of any documents.

Send the letter and copies of documents to the credit reporting agency, or agencies, by certified mail, return receipt requested.

Once the credit report dispute is received by the agency they are legally required to initiate an investigation. Usually, the investigation must be handled within 30 days. Avatar Stream If they determine that the information reported on your report was false or inaccurate then they must remove or correct it.

If you have problems with the dispute process, or continue to see an error on your report after reporting the error according to the above steps, then you may wish to consult with a consumer law attorney. Not only can a consumer law attorney help you correct errors or inaccurate information in your credit report, but they may also be able to secure compensation for damages if a state or federal fair credit reporting statute was violated.  Avatar MuvieCheck with a consumer law attorney to see what legal options you may have.

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