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Today's Tip

Writing Credit Dispute Letters

You should know that the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act works in your favor and you should do everything to take advantage of the law. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you have the right, to dispute the completeness and accuracy of information in your credit file.

The most effective way to challenge the accuracy of your credit report is to write a credit dispute letter to the credit reporting agency or creditor. This tactics is effective because one part of the Federal Fair Credit Reporting Act states that when you dispute any information contained on your credit file, the Credit Bureau must verify the accuracy of the information with the creditor who reported the information within 30 days. If they are unable to verify the information within 30 days, it must be removed. This shifts the burden of proof from you to the to the credit reporting agency or creditor and gives them only 30 days to comply.

Now comes the hard part. Let's face it, most people don't like to write letters. And yes..., letters, not emails. Don't worry, we are here to help. We understand how important these credit dispute letters are in repairing your credit.

Knowing what information to place in these credit repair letters can get your account credited in record time. BadCreditFixUp.com will provide you guidelines to help get you started.

Note: These are guidelines only, and you are advised never to copy the credit repair letters word for word.

If you wonder why you shouldn't copy the credit repair letters, that's because you need to personalize your letter. Approximately 1/3 of all credit dispute letters are from credit repair clinics. Credit bureaus and creditors are not fond of credit repair clinics. So you want to personalize this process so the agencies do not wrongly conclude that you have hired a professional credit repair organization to represent you. Also you don't want your letter to look like thousands of other letters that came from BadCreditFixUp.com

Make your letters personal and show some emotional attachment to the issue.

Important Letter Writing Tips:

When writing the letters of dispute, you should consider handwriting them rather than typing them out.

Send your letter by certified mail, “return receipt requested,” so you can document what the consumer reporting company received. Keep copies of your dispute letter and enclosures.

Make sure you use strong words that will make it clear to the credit reporting agencies that the mentioned listing is being disputed. Examples of these words are erroneous, outdated, misleading or unverifiable.

Do not spend time explaining things in your credit dispute letters , explanations are not considered useful.

If the dispute is sent in from anyone other than you, the Credit Bureau will suspect that you have paid someone to repair your credit. This raises all sorts of Red Flags.

It's better to send in dispute letters yourself. Since the consumer reporting agencies make so many mistakes it is imperative that they believe you are working alone and trying to fix a real legitimate mistake.

It should take between 2 weeks to a month to receive a reply from the credit-reporting agency letting you know that your letter has been received and your dispute is being investigated. After a further 2-4 weeks, a new credit report should be received from the reporting agency to confirm that the item has been removed from you report.

Once the updated credit report has been received, you can then address the next dispute that you have until you have had all of the disputed.

Sample Letters

Note: All downloadable letters require Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it on your computer, download the FREE reader here.