Credit Bureau Response, Part I
Once the bureau receives your dispute letter a computer will
read your letter and see if it's complete or frivolous. The computer may reject
your dispute if it's too long, complicated or unclear.
If the letter gets past the computer, it is forwarded on to
the investigations department, which is usually outsourced to a foreign country
like Jamaica, Costa Rica, or the Philippines. The credit bureau will either
ignore, deny, or investigate your claim. The credit bureau has 30 days to prove
or disprove the item that you are challenging. If they cannot verify the
information within 30 business days, the information must be removed from your
credit report. This time period can be extended if you provide additional
information to the agencies, so be sure not to send new information when
following up on a dispute.
At this point, one of four things may happen.
- You never hear a thing. Perhaps your letter was lost in
the mail. If after 30 business days you have not received a response, you
should send a second letter. Most of the time the investigation process
takes longer than the 30 days that the bureau has to verify the information,
so no response may just mean you've fallen through the cracks. If you have
submitted a convincing letter of dispute, your chances of succeeding are
usually very good. You have the benefits of a tight timeline and an
overloaded system of verification on your side. Many lenders would rather
let negative reports fall through the cracks then spend the time and money
necessary to verify data regarding disputes that were submitted.
- You hear from the bureau that your item is verified, or
the item remains. Don't be discouraged! You have the right to dispute the
information as often as necessary. File the letter in your binder and mark
on your calendar to try again in 60 days.
- The bureau finds that specific items were incorrect or
inaccurate. Upon receiving your letter, the credit bureau notifies the
creditor of the dispute and requests that the creditor verify the entry. If
the creditor agrees that the item is an error then the credit bureau will
clear the record. Congratulations, it's worked! The item is permanently
removed from your report.
- The bureau is unable to verify the information within 30
days. In most instances the creditor will not reply to the credit bureau and
the negative credit mark against you will remain unverified. The vast
majority of bad credit marks are removed from reports in this way.
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