Comments on: Does disputing your debts really help your credit score?

By: crazyjester9

crazyjester9 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:16:59 +0000

Studly, once again, is right on the money with his answer.

I don’t know if Brandy is a collection agent spewing disinformation or just someone who is wrong…but she is wrong. I know Studly, myself and others have all challenged people to provide any proof of that statement and it’s never happened.

Also, BDancer should know that if an item is removed after a dispute and they attempt to reinsert it, you must be informed at least 5 days beforehand. Doing so without the notification is a violation of the law and can open up the creditor/collection agency to a potential lawsuit.
References :

By: Studly

Studly — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:42:59 +0000

Let me first respond to our debt collector’s answer.

You have a RIGHT to dispute ANY item that is on your credit report. This RIGHT is clearly defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

You will NEVER go to jail. It is NOT fraud. Clear enough?

True….the credit bureau has the right to ignore REPEATED disputes as frivolous. But if you dispute every single item on your report, they MUST investigate them.

Why did the government give you this right? Because a few years ago Congress was presented with audits showing that more then 25% of all consumer credit reports contained errors serious enough to result in denied credit.

In 2003 Congress passed the Fair and Accurate Credit Reporting Act, in an effort to correct this problem. In their most recent study, it was discovered that there was NO IMPROVEMENT in the amount of errors on credit reports.

Nearly 21% of people who request their credit reports filed a dispute with the credit bureau.

Collection agencies HATE the FCRA laws. It forces them to take time out of their busy schedule of harassing debtors, and forces them to search for old records to prove the debt is legitimate. It costs them time and money.

For that reason, they will ignore many of the investigation requests from the credit bureau. True…..the bureau will delete the record. and true, they will just update it in a few months and it will re-appear again.

That assumes that they do their job. In many cases they don’t. And your negative credit item disappears forever.

For this reason you ALWAYS dispute every single negative item on your report. But you must also send a letter to the creditor and demand validation. You want them to send you proof you owe the debt.

In other words…you are demanding that they do their job. If it costs them time and money…oh well! That is their job.

If that means our poor collection agent has to put in a little more work, too bad.

I have helped many people fix their credit showing them how to dispute items. It will not remove them all…but it will remove a few (and maybe most) of them.
References :

By: ROGER J

ROGER J — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:10:59 +0000

I’ve ever ment the similiar thing — still a little bit annoy,here is the resource tha help me out.http://credit-score.onlinebestoffer.info/average-us-credit-score-experian.html
References :

By: Blu

Blu — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:40:59 +0000

Disputing the debt only works if and only if the creditor is not able to provide some documentation that you owe something. It won’t hurt your score if you send a dispute on it. It will only help your score if it is removed. But this is highly unlikely if it’s the original creditor. These disputes can work if your debt has been sold multiple times so the documentation is lost in the credit bureaucracy.
If you know you owe something that is on your credit report, then you really have two options. You can either wait until the debt is too old and statute of limitations takes over and well deletes it(if you do this you must not agree to talk to anyone about the debt at all e.i. collection agencies, otherwise they will reinstate it and the time for the statute of limitations starts over again). Or pay off the debt and make sure it is removed. Having a lawyer for this one would help the most. Sometimes if the lawyer is good, they can make the company change the debt into a credit increasing praise and make it so that you do not have to pay the entire debt. Usually they’ll offer only a small portion of the debt back and state to the creditor that you will pay that small portion only if they reverse the debt completely, otherwise nothing will be paid at all and allow the statute of limitations take effect. A lot of creditors can be coerced into doing this because some money back is better than none at all.
References :

By: bdancer222

bdancer222 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:14:59 +0000

The old ‘dispute everything and hope the creditor fails to verify it so it gets removed’ credit repair method does not work. IF something actually gets removed, the creditor will put it right back next month when they update.

Disputing everything will get you tagged by the credit bureau and you will have a very difficult time getting any real errors corrected in the future.

I have a personal theory that some many people use this stupid method that the credit bureaus and creditors automatically rubber stamp an initial dispute no matter what. It just makes it harder for the rest of us to get errors fixed.
References :

By: Brandy

Brandy — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:04:59 +0000

If you legitimately owe this debt DO NOT dispute it. It is fraud, and you could be prosecuted and go to jail. If you do not owe this debt, and dispute it. Once the dispute is resolved, and the debt is removed from your credit report it should help your score.
References :