To dispute an item on your TransUnion credit report you must use the dispute process. This is done by creating and mailing a dispute letter or hiring a service to dispute items on your credit report on your behalf.
You should know that you must file a dispute separately with each credit bureau. Failure to do this and you may remove an item from your TransUnion report, however that item will still be shown on your Experian and Equifax reports.
In a dispute letter the disputed item must be identified and a reason as to why the item is wrong. For example; not my account, account paid, item is out of date, and etcetera.
Upon receipt of your letter TransUnion will conduct an investigation. They will contact the creditor and ask them to verify the account, the dates, and the balance.
If the account can not be verified then it must be removed from your credit report. Frequently investigations result in the deletion of bad credit.
If your account is verified by the lender then if you have a service this can be very beneficial. A service is able to use advanced dispute techniques to remove items. These techniques are; escalated dispute information requests, creditor direct intervention, and debt validation.
Many people are concerned with credit repair being legal or not. Credit repair is in fact legal the Fair Credit Reporting Act that Congress passed gives the consumer the right to dispute any item on their credit report that they feel is inaccurate.
It is a good decision to save all your communication with TransUnion. The credit bureaus have begun to allow people to dispute items on their credit report online, however we do not suggest you do this. We have found that disputing your report online is ineffective.
Also there is a 100 word statement that you can put on your credit report next to a derogatory item. In the past this was a place where you could provide an explanation as to why the account became delinquent.
Today if you fill in this statement then you are only verifying the accuracy of the item. If you try and dispute that item in the future your disputes will be deemed frivolous and ignored.
In sum you can dispute and remove bad credit items on your credit report. You do not have to just live with bad credit.
Viewed 84 times by 36 viewers
