Four Steps to Take to Fix Errors on Your Credit Report

By The Kim Law Firm, LLC

Your credit report matters. It can affect your ability to secure loans, obtain favorable interest rates, and sometimes even impact your job prospects. Beyond that, landlords and utility companies may check your credit report when deciding on the terms of a lease or whether to require a deposit.  You should not be held responsible for an error on a credit report. At The Kim Law Firm, LLC, we protect consumers. This article covers four steps that fix the problem in most cases and build the claim in the rest; the credit report errors page covers how a claim works.

Step #1: Obtain a Copy of Your Credit Reports

As a starting point, you need to know what exactly your credit report(s) say. You should request free copies of your credit reports from the three major credit reporting agencies. The agencies are: 

• Equifax; 
• Experian; and
• TransUnion. 

Every U.S. consumer is entitled to a free credit report from each agency every week (the statute guarantees at least one every 12 months) through the official website. AnnualCreditReport.com. You should review each report carefully for inaccuracies. 

Note: Other services promising free credit reports are not official. Use AnnualCreditReport.com. 

Step #2: Dispute Inaccurate Information With the Credit Reporting Agency

If you find any error on any specific credit report, you have the right to dispute it. You can dispute the error online or over the phone. It is important to dispute the error with each credit reporting agency that is reporting the inaccurate information separately. Each agency operates independently and does not always share dispute information with one another. 

Step #3: Gather and Submit Supporting Documentation

You should gather and prepare all documentation that you have that is related to the error(s). Some of the most common examples of relevant information. Include bank statements, letters, or emails verifying account status and other legal documents. You should send copies—not the originals—to each of the credit agencies. Further, you should generally send a detailed letter that includes your name, address, the items being disputed, and a request for correction. 

Step #4: Take Legal Action Against the Responsible Party

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that regulates how consumer reporting agencies use your information. It ensures the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of the information in consumer reports. Beyond that, the FCRA provides remedies to consumers who have been harmed by an error on a credit report. You can seek financial compensation from the at-fault party if you sustained actual damages from the result of a credit report error. Some examples include: 

• Denial of credit; 
• A higher interest rate on a mortgage loan; 
• The loss of an employment opportunity; 
• Denial of an apartment; and
• Major emotional distress. 

When step four is needed: the clock, and what I do

Most disputes end at step three. The ones that reach me are the ones where the bureau “verified” an entry the documents contradicted, or deleted it and let the furnisher put it back. At that point the first three steps have become the evidence: the report before the dispute, the written dispute and what you attached, the delivery receipt, the bureau’s result, and the report afterward. Add any denial, rate or deposit letter that followed. The entries that most often need step four are covered in six common credit report errors and how to fix them. A late payment on a month you paid has its own page: how to dispute it. An FCRA claim must be filed within two years of the day you discovered the violation, and never more than five years after it happened. I review the file at no cost and bring these cases on contingency: you pay nothing unless we win.

Admitted in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; available to appear pro hac vice in other federal courts.

Sources: 15 U.S.C. §§ 1681g, 1681i, 1681j, 1681n, 1681o, 1681p and 1681s-2 (United States Code); Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, How do I dispute an error on my credit report?

Send the dispute to the furnisher as well

Disputing with the bureaus is the step everyone knows about, and it is necessary, but it is only half the process. When a bureau receives a dispute it forwards a coded summary to the company that furnished the entry, and that summary rarely conveys the documentation you attached. Sending the same dispute directly to the furnisher puts your evidence in front of the party that actually holds the account records, and it creates a second, independently enforceable duty to investigate.

• Capital One — a furnisher reporting on a very large card portfolio.
• Discover — issues and services its accounts under one name.
• American Express — where account structure affects how entries appear.
• Bank of America — furnishes data across several consumer product lines.
• U.S. Bank — reports cards and loans originated through multiple channels.
• OneMain Financial — an installment lender operating under legacy names.

Write to both the bureaus and the furnisher on the same day, keep proof of delivery for each, and state the specific field you say is wrong rather than describing the account generally. Attach statements, canceled payments or correspondence that contradict the entry, because those documents are what make a canned verification response indefensible later. If the entry survives the reinvestigation unchanged and the documentation clearly refutes it, that outcome is itself evidence that the investigation was not reasonable.