After you have received your current copies of your credit report from all three of the main credit reporting agencies you will need to check them over thoroughly for inaccuracies, mistakes or other erroneous information. The majority of credit reports do contain some errors so make sure that you are thorough in your examination. You will probably find an at least a few errors that you will want to address. So what do you do next? You write a credit repair letter.
A credit repair letter is a letter that you write to the credit bureaus that disputes the erroneous credit on your account. The FCRA, or the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you the right to question and dispute erroneous information that is found on your credit report. You want this letter to be succinct but to the point.
Make sure that you include all of the pertinent information about you so that the credit bureaus can accurately identify you and find your report. Include your full name, your current address and previous addresses for the last 7 years, telephone numbers, and your Social Security number. You will also need the account number and all other pertinent information for the listings you are disputing. ADDRESS EACH DISPUTE IN A SEPARATE LETTER. Explain why the information they are reporting is inaccurate and if you happen to have any supporting paperwork, such as a receipt or cancelled check make sure and send a copy of that also.
Send a copy of the letter to all three of the credit bureaus even if it is only being listed on one report. That is because they do share information and you would not want it to be removed from one credit bureaus report only to show up on another bureaus report. Also, many times the error will show up on all three.
It is wise to send all correspondence with registered or certified mail, return receipt requested. That way you have proof of when you sent the letter and also when they took receipt of it. This is crucial because after receipt of the letter the credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate and an additional 5 days to send you a response. If they are unable to verify the accuracy they must delete if from your account.
If you do not receive a response within the time period you should follow up with the credit bureaus. If they have proof of accuracy they should let you know. Occasionally you will have to write more than one letter and be persistent but when you succeed it is well worth the time and energy it took.
Writing a credit repair letter is easy.
Here are some good examples that you can download. They are PDF’s so just right click and “save as” to where you can find them and print them out.
Note: Please note these letters are intended to provide general informaiton for educational purposes only. The content in this post, and letters, are not inteneded to replace professional credit or legal advice.
