What Steps Do I Take to Order a Dispute Form for My Credit Report?

Before the Fair Credit Reporting Act was passed in 1970, consumers not only lacked the right to review their own credit history but also lacked the ability to dispute and correct errors. This caused problems for both individuals and lenders as lenders had no way to determine a borrower's actual lending risk. The FCRA gives you the right to dispute reporting errors in an effort to maintain your good credit rating and ensure that lenders see only accurate credit-related information when evaluating your financial history.

Pull Credit Reports

Before you can dispute information your credit report carries, you must know exactly which errors your report contains. Unfortunately, since creditors sometimes report to different credit bureaus, each report could contain different errors.

You have the right to access one credit report from each credit bureau each year by visiting the only website approved by the Federal Trade Commission for issuing annual free credit reports, AnnualCreditReport.com (see Resources).

Disputing by Mail

There is no specific form for those who wish to dispute their credit information by mail. When disputing via mail, you must write a letter to each credit bureau whose report contains errors and point out which entries are inaccurate. Each credit bureau will then investigate the supposed errors after receiving your dispute.

Online Disputes

Each credit bureau maintains an online dispute option for consumers. Should you opt to file your dispute online, you must visit each credit bureau's website, download the form required for online disputes, fill it out and submit it electronically. Because the credit bureaus' dispute forms are all available online, you do not have to order the form and wait for it to arrive.

Merchant Disputes

Federal law provides you with an alternative to the more traditional credit bureau disputes by permitting you to contest inaccurate information directly with the merchant that originally filed the report. The FCRA stipulates only that merchants must honor consumer disputes. It does not prevent merchants from requiring consumers to file their disputes in a certain way.

Because of this, merchants are free to require consumers to file disputes however they wish. Depending on the creditor, you may need to download and print a credit dispute form the company's website or call and request that the creditor send you a blank dispute form by mail. Some companies do not require dispute forms and allow consumers to request an investigation into the accuracy of a certain item by phone or through a letter.