When And How To File A Credit Report Dispute

The information in your credit report is what lenders use to determine whether or not to extend you credit.  It includes your address, details about whether you pay your bills on time or not, bankruptcy and collections information.  If there are mistakes on your credit report (approximately 25% of them contain serious errors), it will affect the amount you pay for your car insurance premium, your ability to get a job (many employers check your credit before extending an offer), the interest rate your mortgage, and even whether or not you’ll be able to get credit at all.  There is no error too small:  if you spot a mistake on your credit report, it’s important to file a credit report dispute to get it corrected as quickly as possible.

Review Your Credit Report Regularly

The only way to know whether or not your credit report contains accurate information is to look at it!  The government mandates that you can get one free annual credit report (via annualcreditreport.com)  from each of the the major credit reporting companies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.  While these reports don’t contain your actual credit score, they contain more than enough information to determine if there’s been a mistake that needs correcting.  To obtain your score, I recommend purchasing directly from the source at myFico.com.  I do not recommend any of the heavily-advertised credit monitoring services such as freecreditreport.com and similar products.

From the Federal Trade Commission:

To order your free credit report, visit annualcreditreport.com, call 1-877-322-8228, or complete the Annual Credit Report Request Form and mail it to: Annual Credit Report Request Service, P.O. Box 105281, Atlanta, GA 30348-5281.

How to File a Credit Report Dispute

If after you’ve obtained a copy of your credit report you find that your personal information is not correct, or there are notations made about how you’ve paid your bills in the past that do not seem to be accurate, you can file a credit report dispute.

1. Contact the credit reporting agency which reports the inaccurate information, in writing.  Include your complete name and address and identify which pieces of information on your credit report are not correct.
2. Send copies of supporting documents that show the correct information (keep your originals).  Explain in the letter why you are disputing the information and request the false information is removed or corrected.
3. The credit reporting agency has 30 days to investigate your credit report dispute. They will forward you information from the company who reported the inaccurate information. After they’ve completed their investigation, they’ll report back to you whether the information you’ve asked to be changed will be changed.  If they agree with the inaccuracies, they’ll update your credit report and notify the other credit reporting agencies to make the changes, as well.
4. If the corrected information changes your ability to obtain credit, you can ask the credit reporting agency to forward the newly corrected report to anyone who has viewed your credit report in the last six months.

When it Doesn’t Make Sense to File a Credit Report Dispute

If there is negative information in your report about paying bills late or not at all – don’t bother to dispute it if the information is accurate.  Negative information remains on your credit report for seven years or until the statute of limitations runs out; and bankruptcy remains on your file for ten years.