A dispute letter is how you can challenge the accuracy or validity of a bad credit item on your report. In your letter you must include the reason for the dispute and what item is being disputed.
Frequently dispute reasons are; item is out of date, account is paid in full, not my account, information is wrong and more. Upon receipt of a valid dispute letter the bureaus will investigate the item.
During this investigation the collection agency or lender is contacted and the account is verified and the dates and amounts. If the account can not be verified then it will be removed from your credit report.
Frequently investigations result in bad credit marks being removed from your credit. This is often because businesses do not want to spend the extra money and time validating disputed debts.
Allegedly bureaus do not check public records during investigations. This means that negative marks that are recorded in public records are often removed.
You can also hire a credit repair service to dispute your credit report for you. This can be very helpful if you are disputing multiple bad credit items on your report.
Frequently dispute letters will result in the credit bureaus requesting more information from you. In addition you must dispute a bad credit item with each credit bureau separately.
Thus the organization during your credit repair can become a challenge on its own. Also credit services can use advanced dispute techniques such as; creditor direct intervention, debt validation and escalated dispute information requests to remove a bad credit item.
Many services will employ attorneys this will enable you to go to court if it is necessary. In addition you may be a victim of illegal debt collection practices and may be able to file a lawsuit against a collection agency.
It is your responsibility to remove inaccurate or unverifiable bad credit marks from your report. There are estimates that 1 in every 4 Americans has a bad credit mark that is inaccurate or unverifiable on the credit report.
In sum, dispute any inaccurate or unverifiable bad credit marks on your report. You do not have to wait 7 years for a mark to be removed from your credit.