How to dispute an item yourself, for free

The right you already have

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act you may dispute information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete, directly with the credit bureau reporting it, with the company that furnished it, or both. It costs nothing. You do not need a lawyer, a service, or software to do it.

What a dispute has to contain

A dispute is a specific claim about a specific item, not a general objection to the account. Identify yourself, identify the item precisely enough that it cannot be confused with another, state what you believe is wrong, state what the correct information is, and attach whatever supports it.

Keep the reason narrow and factual. "This is not my account" and "the balance is reported as $4,200 and the correct balance is $0, as shown on the attached statement" are claims an investigator can act on. "I do not think this is fair" is not.

• Your full name, current address, and date of birth.
• The furnisher name and account number exactly as they appear on the report.
• What specifically is wrong, and what the correct information is.
• Copies — never originals — of anything that supports the claim.

The investigation window

A bureau generally has 30 days to investigate a dispute, extended to 45 where you supply additional information during the investigation. It must forward the dispute to the furnisher, and the furnisher must investigate and report back.

If the information is found to be inaccurate or cannot be verified, it must be corrected or deleted. You are entitled to a written result, and to a free copy of the report if it changed.

A bureau dispute is not a debt-validation request

These get conflated constantly and they come from different statutes, run on different clocks, and go to different places.

A dispute under the Fair Credit Reporting Act goes to a credit bureau or a furnisher and is about whether the reported information is accurate. A validation request under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act goes to a debt collector, generally within 30 days of their first communication with you, and asks them to verify the debt itself — during which they must pause collection until they respond.

Sending the wrong one to the wrong recipient wastes the deadline that mattered.

Keep the record

Keep a copy of everything you send, note the date you sent it, and keep whatever proof of delivery you chose. If an item comes back verified and you still believe it is wrong, that record is what a second dispute, a complaint, or a lawyer starts from.

You may also add a statement to your file explaining a disputed item, which stays on the report alongside it.

On expectations

Disputing does not guarantee a change. The bureau and the furnisher determine the outcome, and accurate information stays. Anyone telling you otherwise is describing something the law does not provide.

This is a description of a process, not legal advice about your situation.