Enacted by Congress in 1970, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) requires each of the three major U.S. credit reporting companies – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion – to provide you with a free copy of your credit report once every twelve months, at your request. It’s important to continue making that request, and the credit reporting companies have made it easy – with a central website, a toll-free phone number or a mailing address to order your free annual credit report. Be sure to exercise that right, in order to ensure that the information on your report is always correct and up to date. What should you do if you find an error? This article from MarketWatch provides a step-by-step guide.
A high credit score can save you thousands of dollars over your lifetime of borrowing money. The opposite is true of a low credit score. You can end up paying far more than you should because of a low number. But sometimes there are errors made and something that shouldn’t be on your credit report shows up, putting a negative impact on your score.
Fortunately, with any information that’s inaccurate or unconfirmed, there are actions consumers can take to potentially remove it from their credit history. Credit reporting agencies are required to investigate if a consumer raises a dispute. If the credit-reporting agency is unable to confirm the information with the company that reported the debt, then it must delete the information from the consumer’s credit report. In most cases, the unconfirmed information will be deleted from your credit report within 30 days.
If you want to dispute something on your credit report, here’s what you should do.
First, send a dispute letter to the credit reporting company (Equifax, Experian or TransUnion). The FTC has a sample dispute letter you can use as a template. The letter should include your name and address, the specific items you are disputing, the facts as you see them and why you are disputing the information. Be sure to formally state your request to have the information removed or corrected. Include copies of supporting documents but the keep the originals. You may also want to include a copy of your report with the disputed item highlighted. Send the letter by certified mail and request a return receipt. This way you will know when the credit reporting company received your dispute and the 30-day investigation period begins.
