Americans are entitled to a free copy of their credit report every 12 months. Take advantage of this opportunity to ensure that your credit history is being reported accurately. In the event of an error, there are several ways you can correct your report. Documentation of your efforts to resolve the dispute with your creditor, as well as with the agency whose credit report reflects the error, is essential to the success of your case.
Contact the agency
Contact the credit reporting agency that made the reporting error. This agency must contact the other credit agencies, investigate the error and get in touch with the creditor. The information must be confirmed or disputed by the creditor within 30 days. Sending a certified letter is the slowest but most thorough approach, since it leaves a paper trail. The three agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, also have online forms for credit reporting disputes. You can also dispute the information by phone.
Contact the Creditor
Send a certified letter to the creditor that reported the erroneous information to the credit ageny. Follow up with a phone call, and request a letter confirming any attempts made by the creditor to resolve the issue. Keep at least one copy of the letter you sent to the creditor.
Keep Records
Make a file for all the correspondence between yourself and both the creditor and the credit agency. This includes certified letters you have sent, letters you have received in response to your inquiries, printed screen shots of any online dispute attempts, and tapes or digital recordings of any phone conversations. Of course, you must have notified the person with whom you spoke that you were recording the call.
Get Help
If you are unable to achieve results on your own, hire a professional. Although there are some reputable credit repair companies, many are not legitimate. Even legitimate credit repair companies basically do the same things you can do in attempting to repair your credit. If you have filed disputes with the creditor and credit agency, and the error has not been repaired, you may want to hire an attorney. The last resort is a lawsuit, but you will have legal grounds to file one only if you have gone through all the necessary steps to dispute the error.
0 comments:
Post a Comment