Checking Your Credit Record
How does the process of challenging inaccurate information work?
Unless it believes that your request is "frivolous or irrelevant," the credit bureau must either verify the facts within a reasonable period of time or delete the information from its files. The "frivolous-or-irrelevant" provision is there in part to deal with some credit repair clinics (see below), who challenge all negative information, whether there is a basis for the challenge or not. As a matter of practice, ACB bureaus reinvestigate the complaint within thirty days. If your complaint is justified, the credit bureau will automatically notify the other bureaus of the change and, if you request it, notify any creditor that has checked your file in the past six months (two years for employment reports).
If reinvestigation of disputed information by a credit bureau does not resolve the matter, you may file your version of the story in a statement of up to one hundred words. The credit bureau must include your statement, or a clear and accurate summary of it, in all future credit reports containing the disputed item. You also may ask the credit bureau to mail copies of your statement to anyone who received a report containing the disputed item during the last six months. This time period is two years for employment reports.
>>What do credit bureaus do?
>>Do credit bureaus ever report one person’s record instead of another’s?
>>May I look at my credit record?
>>Do I have a right to see my credit record if it contains adverse information about me?
>>What does a credit report look like?
>>What may I do if I believe the credit bureau has incorrect information in my file?
>>How does the process of challenging inaccurate information work?
>>What is the story behind companies that advertise their abilities to repair faulty credit histories? They sound too good to be true.
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