How will I know that the credit bureaus will fix my reports?


How will I know that the credit bureaus will fix my reports?

How will I know that the credit bureaus will fix my reports?So you’re looking at your credit reports, and you have an error on them.

You send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus, and now you’re wondering how you’ll know if they have fixed it.

First off, I’d like to say that almost all disputes should be done by certified mail.

That way you get the green card back and you can use the postal code to find out when exactly they get your dispute letter.

Because the credit bureaus know that you can track when they received your letter, they’ll be less likely to just crumple up your letter and toss it out.

Then, in about 30-45 days, they will send you a letter detailing what they’re doing to fix your report.

If you don’t get that letter, call them.

Let them know that you sent a dispute letter, you know that they received it, and you haven’t gotten a response from them.

That way, if it got lost in the mail they can resend it to you.

However, you’ll find out from their response, which is usually labeled “results of investigation,” is one of three things.

  1. They’re going to delete the account, or “tradeline,” that you’re disputing.
  2. They’re going to verify the account you’re disputing, which means they’re going to keep it on your report.
  3. Or, they’re going to update your account. This means that they’re keeping it on your account but they’re making some changes to it that you should see.

“What should I do with this information?”

If you ask them to delete the error and they do, that’s great!

What if they verify it, but you know for a fact it’s false?

You should sue under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act).

There are other laws you could use as well, such as the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act), if you’re dealing with a debt collector.

If they update your account and it’s fixed, that’s fantastic!

But what if they don’t?

We had a client who had a $5,000 debt, but they were told that if they paid $2,500, then the debt would be removed from their credit reports.

Unfortunately, they didn’t remove the debt from our client’s reports.

So we disputed with them on it, and they updated it.

Except they put on the report that our client owed $2,500.

We disputed it, but they still didn’t have the right information.

These errors, which shouldn’t have been on our reports in the first place, tanked our client’s credit score.

So, we sued them under the FCRA.

If you’re dealing with a credit bureau that won’t fix your reports, get in touch with someone who can help.

If you’re in Alabama and you’d like to get in touch with us, you can reach us at 1-205-879-2447.

Or, if you prefer, you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly. 

We hope this article has been helpful to you, and we look forward to chatting with you.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

-John G. Watts


4 Comments

  1. chris kay says:

    Dear Mr. Watts, Thank you for your helpful articles.

    In Jan. I did a security freeze at all three bureaus due to odd activity on my reports from Annualcrreport. I sent the notice certified mail. I’m not in debt and haven’t used credit for years. Experian did the freeze correctly, but Equa and TransU sent a pin with my name spelled incorrectly. The latter did the freeze in a maiden name I haven’t used in over 20 years. I’ve sent more certified letters, updated personal info, and proof of ID DL, ssn card, but they won’t change the misspellings nor disclose the source of this antiquated and incorrect information. What should I do? Its been nearly 2 months. Am I entitled to a full credit report that discloses the furnisher of this bogus 20 year old info? Thanks for any help.

    • John Watts says:

      You are very welcome Chris!

      Sorry dealing with this.

      I would do an actual dispute to the ones that have the incorrect information — send them proof (sounds like you have already — send again) and see what they do.

      They don’t necessarily have to tell you where they got the info from — their obligation is to fix it.

      Now sometimes they have slight variations in our name because they have received it that way on some of our accounts. I would still tell them to fix it.

      If they do, great.

      If not, you may can sue over it.

      I suggest talking with an FCRA lawyer in your state — at least in Alabama what we would do is the following:

      1. Look at your reports
      2. Have you point out the errors you see — we would also point out info we think might be errors
      3. Help you prepare a dispute letter to send certified mail
      4. Sue them if they don’t fix the errors

      I think if you are outside of AL you can find a lawyer in your state to do the same thing.

      What’s the old expression — best time to dig a well is when you are not thirsty? Best time to fix your credit report is when you don’t need it. It is very stressful trying to fix it right before you buy a house, etc. so congrats on working on it now!

      Best wishes!

      John Watts
      205-879-2447

      • chris says:

        Thank you for your kind help Mr. Watts. I’ve been trying to learn how to word dispute letters. Planning to purchase a book on amzn for how to deal with bureaus. I’m unable to afford an attorney, but have been trying to find creative solutions. I may do an affidavit of fact, with a later per-letter invoice for small claims ct. if they won’t correct my information. If anything I find or do is successful, I’ll share it. Maybe it can help someone else down the road. Thank you so much for pointing me in the right direction, you are appreciated very much.

        • John Watts says:

          Chris,

          You are welcome.

          I would contact a lawyer who does FCRA work — they should NOT charge you to help you dispute false information. We make our money when we sue the bad guys. 🙂

          That way you don’t have to do this on your own unless you want to.

          Best wishes!

          John Watts

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