How to Dispute an Error on Your Credit Report

A mistake on your credit report can cost you a loan or an apartment. Here's how to find errors and use your federal rights to get them fixed, for free.

Credit reports influence whether you get approved for loans, credit cards, apartments and sometimes jobs, and the interest rates you're offered. Yet errors are surprisingly common: accounts that aren't yours, late payments you made on time, debts listed twice, or old negative items that should have been removed. Under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), you have the right to dispute inaccurate information, and fixing an error costs you nothing.

Step 1: Get your free credit reports

Request your reports from all three national credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian and TransUnion — at AnnualCreditReport.com. This is the official site for free reports under federal law, and the bureaus now offer them weekly. Each bureau may have different information, so check all three.

Step 2: Review every section carefully

Look for:

• Identity errors: wrong name, address or Social Security number; accounts that belong to someone with a similar name.
• Accounts you don't recognize, which could be a sign of identity theft.
• Incorrect account status: a closed account reported as open, a paid debt reported as unpaid, or you listed as the owner of an account where you were only an authorized user.
• Wrong payment history: payments reported late that were on time.
• Duplicate accounts — the same debt listed more than once, sometimes under the original lender and a collection agency.
• Outdated negative information. Most negative items, such as late payments and collections, generally must be removed after seven years. Many bankruptcies can stay up to ten years.

Step 3: Gather your evidence

Collect anything that supports your case: bank statements showing on-time payments, letters confirming an account was paid or closed, a settlement agreement, or an FTC identity theft report. Make copies — never send your originals.

Step 4: File a dispute with the credit bureau

Dispute the error with each bureau that shows it. You can do this online through each bureau's dispute page, by mail or by phone. Online is fastest, but disputing by mail with a letter sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, gives you a clear paper trail.

Your dispute should include:

• Your full name, address and date of birth
• Each item you dispute, with the account number
• A clear explanation of why it's wrong and what you want — for example, "Please remove this account, which does not belong to me" or "Please correct this payment to show it was paid on time"
• Copies of your supporting documents
• A copy of your report with the errors circled or highlighted

Step 5: Dispute with the company that supplied the information

You can also dispute directly with the furnisher — the bank, card issuer, lender or collector that reported the information. Under the FCRA, a furnisher that receives a valid dispute must investigate, and if the information is wrong, it must notify the bureaus it reported to. Disputing with both the bureau and the furnisher can strengthen your case.

What happens next

Credit bureaus generally must investigate within 30 days of receiving your dispute (sometimes up to 45 days in certain situations). They forward your evidence to the furnisher, which must review it. When the investigation is done, the bureau must send you the results in writing and a free copy of your report if the dispute led to a change.

If the information is corrected or deleted, you can ask the bureau to send a corrected report to anyone who received your report in the past six months — or two years for employment purposes.

If your dispute is rejected

• Add a statement of dispute. You can ask the bureau to include a short statement in your file explaining your side.
• Submit a complaint to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) at consumerfinance.gov/complaint. The CFPB forwards complaints to companies and works to get a response.
• Talk to a consumer attorney. If a bureau or furnisher fails to follow the law, you may have legal rights under the FCRA.

A word on "credit repair" companies

You don't need to pay anyone to dispute errors. Credit repair companies cannot legally remove accurate information, and under federal law they generally can't charge you before they've performed the promised services. Anything they can legitimately do, you can do yourself for free.