June 8, 2020
Do you know what it takes to dispute a problem on your credit reports? If you don’t know the contents of your credit report, or how to dispute your report, you may encounter trouble at loan application time.
Are you a potential home loan applicant in planning stages of your home loan? It is very important to look at your credit reports and review the contents.
If you have never seen your credit report before, you are not ready to fill out a home loan application.
Review Your Credit Reports Now
Disputing your report doesn’t happen overnight–you need time to dispute inaccurate or outdated information that may be on your credit report. And entries in your credit file that point to you being a victim of identity theft? That can take even longer.
Disputing an entry in your credit report that involves fraud means you must file police reports to dispute identity theft issues on your account.
Doing one of those reports can take time, you need to do one for each credit agency. Each credit reporting agency may have different procedures for handling such disputes.
How To Dispute Your Credit Report
It is important to establish a series of correspondance on the dispute so its necessary to write a formal letter (for best results) to the credit reporting agencies individually–these agencies do not share information so be prepared to do everything three times.
When you draft your dispute letter, explain what specific items on the credit report you are contesting and why. Don’t be vague–assume the reader has not seen your credit report and has no idea why you want to dispute it.
Explain why the entry in your report is not accurate, and be sure to include supporting documentation to reinforce your claim including canceled checks or other proof of payment, any supporting evidence that addresses or other contact information is or was wrong, and update your current contact information so the agency can get back to you about your claim.
Be as clear and direct in your correspondence as possible. Include dates, addresses, full names, and the specific complaint you have about the credit report entry.
Be Specific
Don’t say “identity theft” without explaining what exactly you mean and be sure to include any explanations or proof you have that speaks to the accuracy of the credit report entry.
You may be asked to provide this information electronically but it pays to submit a hard copy, too. No one can claim your complaint got lost in the mail (electronic or otherwise) when you send a paper copy of your case via Registered Mail and can show proof the package was delivered and accepted.
As always, never send originals for any such dispute–you will need the originals later on.
Joe Wallace has been specializing in military and personal finance topics since 1995. His work has appeared on Air Force Television News, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and a variety of print and online publications. He is a 13-year Air Force veteran and a member of the Air Force Public Affairs Alumni Association. He was Managing editor for www.valoans.com for (8) years and is currently the Associate Editor for FHANewsblog.com.
Browse by Date: