The credit report is a very important document because it contains information on your residence, bill payments, law violations, or filing for bankruptcy. The credit bureaus put the information in your report for sale to the different loaning agencies, insurers, employers, creditors and other institutions that use these pieces of information. Checking your credit report for errors is necessary in order to avoid identity theft. In addition, this will also determine if you can get a loan and how much you can get.
To be able to dispute errors, you must first get a copy of your credit report from any of the three credit bureaus namely Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. You can order a copy of your report for free via mailing address, toll-free number or website. You can visit annualcreditreport.com or you can call 1-877-322-8228. You may print a blank credit report request form from ftc.gov/credit. Remember not to contact these three credit bureaus individually since they are only providing free credit reports using the above-mentioned steps. On a last note, you can order a free report from each of the three bureaus. But if you want to order one copy only, you can do so. The federal law permits a person to order a free report from each of the three bureaus once a year.
Once you receive your credit report, read it carefully and look for errors. If there are mistakes in your report, immediately tell the credit bureau who issued your report about those mistakes in writing. In the letter that you are going to send, you have to site all the information which you think are erroneous. You should indicate your name and address, and attach a copy of your credit report. More importantly, you have to site clearly each items in your report that you are disputing and state a reason or reasons why you are disputing that item. Furthermore, after identifying those errors and explaining your side, request the bureau to correct or remove the errors. For easier reference in the part of the bureau, you may encircle the items you are disputing in the attached copy of your credit report. Make sure that you send your letter by certified mail where there is a return receipt requested in order to keep track of the documents you have sent. Remember to keep a copy of the dispute letter you sent together with the enclosed documents.
The credit bureau will then investigate your dispute and send a copy of your letter with enclosures to the organization that gave the information. The institution who gave information on those items will investigate your case, review the pertinent information and revert to the credit bureau all the necessary information. If those errors are validated, they must notify all of the three credit bureaus in order to update your file.
After the investigation and validation of those errors, the credit bureau will send you a revised copy of your credit report, also indicating the information provider’s name, address and contact number.
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