Equifax Dispute

By Justin Hutto

A dispute can be filed with Equifax by creating a dispute letter and mailing it to them. In your letter you will need to include a reason as to why the listing is inaccurate.

There are two options to do this; you can do it yourself or hire a credit repair service to do it on your behalf. However be aware if you do it yourself that you must send a letter to each credit bureau.

This means that if you send a letter to Equifax and they remove the mark you will also need to send a letter to Transunion or Experian. There is no communication between the three bureaus regarding disputes.

Reasons to dispute a listing are; item is out of date, information is wrong, not my account, account paid in full, and more. The Fair Credit Reporting Act says that you have the right to dispute any mark on your credit report.

In addition the act says the bureaus must remove an item if it is not verified by the creator. This act is what the dispute process is based upon.

When your dispute is filled the bureau will conduct an investigation. They will contact the creator of the negative mark and ask them to verify the debt, the amounts and the dates.

If the mark can not be verified then it is removed from your credit report. Often an investigation results in the removal of bad credit. This is a result of many businesses being unwilling to spend the time and money verifying disputed debts.

However before the credit bureau will conduct an investigation your dispute must be a valid dispute. There is no way to tell if the bureaus will deem your letter valid or invalid.

Many claim that the bureaus are just avoiding having to hold an investigation so they will deem your dispute invalid and respond with a letter requesting more information about the dispute. It is widely speculated that this is nothing more than a stall tactic used by the bureaus.

This is because it will only cost the bureaus money to investigate disputes. The bureaus customers are businesses and only because of government law is there a dispute process.

I suggest you hire a service if you have multiple items you wish to dispute on your credit. If you have only minor damage on your report then you can do it yourself, just remember to be persistent and have some patience.

In sum you do not have to wait seven years for a bad credit item to be removed from your credit. You can dispute the listing and have it removed immediately.

About the Author:

For a free credit repair letter to dispute items on your credit report or to read a review of Lexington Law a suggested credit repair service visit us.