HOW TO DISPUTE INCORRECT INFORMATION ON YOUR CREDIT REPORT

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, it is illegal for a debt collector to report – or even to just threaten to report – incorrect information about you to a credit reporting agency or bureau.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, both the credit reporting agency and the company providing the information about your credit history have obligations to correct inaccurate or incomplete information in your credit reports. Therefore, to dispute inaccurate information in your credit reports or to request that changes be made, you should contact both the agency and the information provider. For example, if you have a credit card through your local bank which shows on your Experian credit report as having late payments which were not actually late, you should request the information be corrected by both Experian and the bank that issued the credit card.

Once you dispute the inaccurate or incomplete information in writing, the consumer reporting agency must investigate the matter, usually within 30 days. The credit reporting agency must also forward the specifics regarding your dispute to the company that provided the information to them. When the investigation is complete, you are entitled to information about the dispute and a free copy of your credit report, if the dispute results in a change to your report.

A credit reporting agency or information provider who fails to correct inaccuracies on your credit report after a proper dispute is made can be liable to you for money damages and attorneys fees paid by the party who is responsible for the incorrect information on your report!

The dispute MUST be made in writing in order to have the proper legal effect. You should also send the letter by certified mail, return receipt requested, or some other form of delivery where you will be able to prove that it was received by the credit reporting agency or information provider. That will be much easier if you have the certified mail "green card" or some other proof of delivery. Make sure to save a signed copy of your letter too!

Your dispute letter should contain the following information, at a minimum. The more information you provide to aid in their investigation, the better.

• Your full name
• Your social security number
• Your home address
• All telephone numbers at which they can contact you
• The name of the creditor (information provider)
• Account number, loan number, credit card number, etc.
• A copy of the pages from the report containing the inaccurate information, with the relevant sections circled or highlighted
• A specific statement regarding what is inaccurate and how it should be corrected;
• A request for the matter to be investigated with the creditor and for the disputed items to be corrected or deleted from your report
• A request for the letter to be made a permanent part of your credit record

The addresses to which the letters should be sent are listed below, depending upon which credit report contains the information you want investigated or corrected.