Money Biz Blog

To dispute a bad credit item on your Equifax credit report you must send a dispute letter. In your letter you must include the disputed item and why it is incorrect.

This letter can be created by you or you can hire a credit repair service to do it on your behalf. If you choose to do it yourself realize you have to dispute the item with each credit bureau.

This means that if you send a letter to Equifax and they remove the mark you will also need to send a letter to Transunion or Experian. There is no communication between the three bureaus regarding disputes.

Reasons for a dispute include; information is wrong, item out of date, account paid in full, not my account and others. The Fair Credit Reporting Act that was passed by congress gives you the right to dispute any listing on your credit that you feel is inaccurate.

In addition this act says the bureaus must remove a listing from your report if it can not be verified. This act is what the dispute process is based upon.

When your dispute is filled the bureau will conduct an investigation. They will contact the creator of the negative mark and ask them to verify the debt, the amounts and the dates.

If the mark can not be verified then it is removed from your credit report. Often an investigation results in the removal of bad credit. This is a result of many businesses being unwilling to spend the time and money verifying disputed debts.

However before the bureau will investigate your dispute they must say it is valid. There is no clear cut definition of what a valid dispute is.

It is common for bureaus to respond to a dispute letter with another letter that requests more information about the dispute. This is said to be a stall tactic the bureaus use to avoid conducing and investigation.

This is because there is no money to be earned from the dispute process. It however will cost the bureaus time and money to investigate.

I suggest a credit repair service if you have multiple listings you wish to dispute. However you can repair your credit yourself if you have minor damage, be patient and persistent.

In sum you do not have to wait seven years for a bad credit item to be removed from your credit. You can dispute the listing and have it removed immediately.