How Do You Get Something Removed From Your Credit Report?
How to Delete Incorrect or Hostile Reports from Your Credit File
Incorrect or adverse data on the credit report can cause much harm to the credit score and may hinder one from being considered for any form of credit facility such as loans, mortgages, credit cards, etc. Every little detail in reporting, or even the information on the site being a little old, affects the score. This is why you should take time and go through your credit reports and report any issue that you notice is inaccurate. Below are the steps to follow to be able to challenge inaccurate items and have them deleted from one’s credit history.
Obtain Your Free Credit Report- The initial action entails requesting your credit reports from the three primary consumer credit reporting agencies that are Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. In fact, by federal law, you are allowed to receive one copy of your report from each bureau at least once a year. You can order them online at annualcreditreport. com or you can call the phone number that is provided on their website or send them an email. If you are going through each report, be sure to pay attention to the negative items or any account information that may seem incorrect or outdated.
Determine what it is you want to have taken away- List all the items included in your credit report that you have cause to believe to be disputed or to be included in your credit history.
This includes:
Any account that you do not own or have direct control over.
Inaccurate account balances (e. g. states that you’ve missed some payments that you never made).
Some of the accounts that should ideally be closed are still listed as being opened.
7-10 Years old accounts are still being included.
Unreliable details about an individual such as wrong historical record about his or her residential location.
Any loss is reported in the event of an error or without compliance with the necessary investigation steps.
If possible, obtain any documentation to support your dispute claims to try and make your case appear more convincing.
Prepare a Sample of Dispute Letters to Every Credit Bureau- Another way of following through is by sending professional dispute letters to Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion concerning the items you wish deleted from your credit file or corrected. At the top of the list, provide all the identification data, including your full legal name, date of birth, SSN, and present address. It should be noted that the account name and reference to the report page number should be provided for each item in dispute. When and if you can explain why the information is inaccurate or should not be part of your record then offering supporting details or documentation is very useful. Demand that the bureaus investigate the claims, remove or modify the pertaining entries, and provide a confirmation of the changes in 30 days. Make sure to send copies of your letters through certified mail with the return receipt requested, just in case it will be useful in the future.
Send Photocopies of Your Complaint to Creditors- However, forward copies of your dispute letters to each creditor or company that has provided the information that is being disputed. This informs them that their reporting is in question and that they too have to look into the items that you cited and make the right adjustments on what they report to the credit bureaquial agencies. If no reply has been received after 30 days, then it is recommended to send a memo again. In light of the FCRA, furnishers must update credit bureaus with accurate information once they are informed that the data they provide is disputed.
You should always follow up on your disputes and make sure to get an answer on any issue that you have raised in a discussion with the client- Be consistent in contacting both the bureaus and the creditors to confirm that they are conducting investigations on the disputes that you have made. If errors are not corrected within the required time or accounts that you have disputed appear on your reports, forward new dispute letters and contact the bureaus again. When communicating, be as detailed as possible about what specifically is still wrong or in doubt about reported amounts. If there are items, for example, that you have good and valid reasons to believe are being reported illegitimately, also submit complaints with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to induce further examination.
Please include a Credit Report Statement- If you were able to positively identify negative information as accurate and they were not removed after submitting your credit disputes, you may ask the credit bureaus to include a statement from you – around 100 words or so. It will not affect your credit score but it will inform anyone who pulls your credit report of any additional background information you may have provided if you had checked those options.
Since mistakes could be corrected or outdated items could be deleted from your credit reports once you follow the dispute process mentioned above, this helps in the improvement of a credit score that had been pulled down. However, you should be aware that any genuine adverse record will continue to affect your score as long as it remains within the standard time of 7-10 years depending on the type of credit. This means you need to continue paying all loans and credit obligations on time plus maintaining credit card usage at a minimum in the future.
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