A guide to credit dispute letters

Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, the three major credit bureaus, are required by law to correct mistakes found on your consumer credit reports. Each bureau lets you dispute those mistakes on their respective reports online, over the phone or by mail. As a Credit Karma member, you can also use the Direct Dispute™ tool in your account to file a dispute online with TransUnion.

But to dispute an error by mail, you’ll need to write a credit dispute letter.

Credit dispute letters should contain the reason behind the dispute, the evidence to support your claim and the action you want the credit bureau to take after the investigation.

Credit Karma provides free TransUnion and Equifax credit reports, which you can use to check for errors. You can also get all three of your credit reports through annualcreditreport.com. Once you know which reports have the error, you can start your dispute letter.

Here’s a breakdown of how to write your credit dispute letter, where to send it and what you should include with it.

• What is a credit dispute letter?
• What can I dispute on my credit report?
• What should I include in my credit dispute letter?
• Sample credit dispute letter
• Where can I send my credit dispute letter?
• What about ‘pay for delete’ letters?
• What does the credit dispute process look like?
• Next steps: Monitor your credit
• FAQs about credit dispute letters

What is a credit dispute letter?

A credit dispute letter is a document you can send to a credit bureau to point out inaccuracies on your credit report and to request the removal of the errors. In the letter, you can explain why you believe the items are inaccurate and provide any supporting documents. If your dispute is resolved in your favor, the credit reporting agency must remove the erroneous items in your file and update your report.

Not all creditors report to each of the three major consumer credit bureaus, so the errors might be isolated to just one credit report. To be sure, it’s a good idea to check for errors on your credit reports from all three of the bureaus.

What can I dispute on my credit report?

Here are just a few examples of items you can dispute:

• Incorrect information about collections
• Payments that were mistakenly reported as late
• Bankruptcies that haven’t been removed after 10 years
• Foreclosures that haven’t been removed after seven years

Justin Chidester, owner and certified financial planner and accredited financial counselor with Wealth Mode Financial Planning, gives an example of how credit dispute letters can work.

“I had one client who had a misunderstanding around the time he obtained in-store financing for an engagement ring,” Chidester says. “He felt like they were unclear about when his payments would start, and he ended up having a 30- to 59-day late payment reported.”

Chidester wrote a letter to the credit bureau requesting that the information be deleted on the grounds that the store was “misleading about payment arrangements.” Fortunately, the credit bureau listened to him and his client’s credit report was soon squeaky clean.

What should I include in my credit dispute letter?

By giving the bureau the necessary information, it should have what it needs to make a decision on your case.

Here’s what you should include when you write your credit dispute letter:

• The current date
• Your personal information (include your name, contact info, date of birth and account number, but do not include your Social Security number)
• The credit bureau’s contact information
• A brief description of the error (no need to regale them with a long and complicated story)
• Any documents you have that help prove your point, such as payment records or court documents (make sure to mention that you’re sending these in the letter)
• Instructions about what you want the credit bureau to do (reinvestigate and remove the item from your report)
• A copy of your credit report with the error highlighted
• A scanned copy of your government-issued ID (such as your driver’s license) and a bill or some other document to prove your address

Sample credit dispute letter

Where can I send my credit dispute letter?

Here are the addresses used for disputes by the three major credit bureaus.

Equifax Information Services LLC
PO Box 740256
Atlanta, GA 30374-0256

Experian
PO Box 4500
Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion Consumer Solutions
PO Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016-2000

Make sure to keep copies of any records you send to the credit bureaus.

What about ‘pay for delete’ letters?

“Pay for delete” describes when a debt collector or creditor offers to stop reporting accounts in collections to credit bureaus in exchange for payment on the account.

This could fall into a gray area. According to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, creditors that choose to report to credit bureaus are required to furnish accurate and complete information to them. This applies to all the information that collections agencies or the original creditor chooses to report, but in pay-for-delete schemes, the debt holders are choosing not to report specific information.

Because of its questionable nature, it can be hard to get a debt collector or a creditor to agree to a pay-for-delete request. On their websites, the three major credit bureaus explain that if a creditor decides to report to a bureau, it must report complete data. In the view of the bureaus, “pay for delete” is likely to be a useless and expensive process.

Even if the creditor notes that you paid your debt off, it won’t erase all the late payment notices from the original creditor from your reports.

If you have debt in collections, consider finding a certified counselor through the National Foundation for Credit Counseling to help you create a debt management plan instead.

What does the credit dispute process look like?

The steps to dispute an error on your credit report are fairly straightforward. Credit bureaus are generally required to investigate a dispute within 30 days of receiving your letter and provide a response within five days of completing their investigation. Sometimes, the process lasts longer, but each bureau must wrap up its investigation and notify you of its judgment within 90 days at the latest.

In some cases, the credit bureaus might ask for more information. They may also reject your claim.

“If you don’t get the answer you want the first time, don’t just give up,” says Jason Hamilton, a financial planner and author. “You may need to go back and forth multiple times. And if you know you are correct and can’t get the bureaus to agree with you, don’t be afraid to contact a lawyer.”

Chidester agrees.

“I often have my clients send in the same letter with slightly changed verbiage for a second, and sometimes third, round,” he says, going on to describe how it’s had some success with his clients. “Occasionally, on the second or third attempt, the dispute will be resolved as requested even if the first try was rejected.”

Next steps: Monitor your credit

After you successfully dispute an error, be sure to monitor your credit to make sure the correction is made. If the changes aren’t reflected within two months of resolution, contact the credit bureau again.

To help you keep an eye on your credit reports, consider signing up for credit monitoring services.

Credit Karma provides free credit reports and VantageScore 3.0 credit scores from TransUnion and Equifax, two of the three major credit bureaus. Credit Karma also offers a free credit monitoring service.

These services alert you to significant activity — like new hard inquiries or late payments — helping you catch and resolve errors before they can damage your credit standing.