Credit Report Company

By law, you are entitled to a free copy of your credit report annually.  You may request it from any of the big credit reporting agencies like Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.  It is important to take advantage of the free report on a regular basis to make sure that all of the information on it is correct.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act(FCRA) is a federal law that guarantees consumers the right to challenge information found on their credit reports.  Before the FCRA came into being, consumers were unable to get a copy of their own credit history, making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get errors corrected.   

Once you submit a dispute in writing, the credit reporting agency must respond within thirty days.  If it disagrees that there is an error, it must provide you with the evidence it used in arriving at that conclusion.  If a change was made in your favor, you should receive a free copy of your updated report.

Sometimes, the fastest and most effective way to get an error removed from your credit report is to contact the creditor concerned directly.  If the creditor agrees that an error has been made, they will contact the credit reporting agencies on your behalf and have a correction made.

If the creditor is a large company, it’s best to find out ahead of time if it has a department that handles disputes.  Sending your dispute to the right place can save you a great deal of time, rather than sending it to a general corporate address from which it could take weeks to get to the right area.

Communicate with the creditor in writing, and be as specific as possible.  Don’t assume they can easily access all of the details of your transaction.  Provide date, time, location, exact amount of the transaction, and copies of receipts, statements or cancelled checks. Be sure to keep the originals for your own records. Make sure the creditor has current and complete contact information for you.  Also provide contact information for the big three credit reporting agencies so the creditor can get your report updated without delay.

Once the creditor has let you know that the error has been corrected and the credit reporting agencies notified, order another copy of your credit report to make sure that the update has taken place.

If you wish, you can also contact the credit-reporting agency.  As with the creditor, be sure to send as much specific information as possible.  In addition, send back a copy of your credit report, with the offending items highlighted.  Use certified or registered mail to send your dispute, so that you have a written record of exactly when the credit-reporting agency received it.  Be sure to keep a copy of the letter you sent.

Once the agency receives your dispute, it has thirty days to respond.  In this time, they will forward your information to the creditor, who will be required to investigate the matter and respond back to the credit agency with the results.

If the credit-reporting agency finds that there has been an error, it will update your credit report and send you another copy.  If requested, it must also provide letters of correction to anyone who inquired into your credit history within the past six months.

You may have noticed that a number of law firms and credit repair agencies advertise that they can correct errors and improve your credit score quickly.  They usually charge hundreds, and sometimes thousands of dollars for their services.  In most cases, these agencies are doing exactly what you can do yourself: send a letter with supporting evidence to dispute the incorrect information.

If there are numerous incorrect items and you simply don’t have the time to send that many letters and gather that much information, you might consider the fees money well spent.  Or if you have contacted the creditor and credit-reporting agency without success, you might consider enlisting a professional if you want to pursue it further.

Even though it can be frustrating to learn of errors on your credit report, it is not that difficult to get them corrected.  Just be sure to keep careful and accurate records of your financial transactions, so that gathering the information is quick and easy.  If you have the proof on hand, it’s very likely that errors will be corrected quickly, and your credit score will improve as a result.

If you find errors on your personal credit report, you have the right to dispute it and have it corrected.