Analyzing and Disputing Your Credit Report
Every consumer should know that they can dispute any item or items on
their credit report at any time. If you think the information is completely
wrong, inaccurate, or out of date you are allowed to dispute it with the credit
bureau. It is then the job of the credit bureau to contact the creditor
to have them verify the information. According to the law, the credit
bureau has 30 days to respond to the dispute and if they cannot verify this information
within this period of time it has to be removed from your credit report
altogether. If the credit bureau checks with the creditor to verify and
it is not something that can be verified, it must be removed.
If the
information that you are having issues with is old, you have a very good chance
of having it removed from your credit report. The reason is that many
creditors will only keep information on file for two to three years. Because
of this the creditor just may not respond to the credit bureau, in which case
the charge needs to be removed from your report altogether.
One
thing that is very important is that you never dispute more than three different
items at a time. Start with three and then move onto the next three.
It may take time and patience to get through the dispute process. Don't
expect to get your disputes resolved over night. You will need to take
your time and go about the dispute process in the right manner and also be sure
that you stay very well organized so you have things on hand to dispute any information
that comes your way.
If the creditor comes back with information
that they can verify the charge, be sure to ask for proof. Do not
just take your word for it; ask for a copy of your signature on something.
When you do this you may find that the creditor simply states that they cannot
verify the charge and they will remove it from your credit report. Having
the patience and the knowledge not to simply take someone's word for it will
help you get items removed from your credit report if it should not be there.
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