Dispute question

Sure. There are different schools of thought on that, some people believe one item per envelope (letter) others think it's OK to dispute 3 or four items per letter.

If you decide to dispute more than one item, just write a clear concise business letter. New paragraph for each disputed item.

Good luck.

 

Just be careful here. If you send one dispute today and another one in a few days to the same CRA, they will extend the time allowed to process BOTH disputes.

If your going with the one dispute at a time, then you can have one at each CRA (EX EQ TU).

 

I am a mortgage lender, and part of my job involves assisting people with their credit in order to help them qualify. Our school of thought is to dispute anything which is derogatory, and see if it sticks, then work from there. I routinely help prospects with writing dispute letters which contain up to a dozen items. This is the usual form which we use:

To Whom It May Concern:

Upon reviewing my credit report, I have discovered that it contains inaccurate, derogatory information, which I wish to dispute at this time.

* HSBC, being reported late several times in 2001. This account was never late.
* Collection item for Sherman Aquisition, amount $330. I do not owe this.
* Chase Manhattan item in the amount of $2000. I do not owe this.
* Capital One chargeoff in the amount of $1000. I do not owe this.
* Chase NA chargeoff in the amount of $1500. I do not owe this.

Please correct these inaccurate items, as they are damaging my ability to obtain credit.


Sincerely,


-------------

One item per envelope could equate to a lot of envelopes, when you're talking about someone who has ten derogs, then multiplied across three credit bureaus. Sometimes I have a difficult time getting people to print what I send them and send just three letters! (although when that happens, this gives me a pretty good idea of why they're in that predicament in the first place, and I move on...) Also in some cases the CRAs are blowing people off and not researching, so in these cases a CMRRR is called for.

 

On my first dispute letter to each CRA I will send a blanket dispute for all derogatory items. With later disputes I will send individual letters because the investigations are usually completed at different times.

Computer scanners read the letters you are sending to the CRA's. There is no person reading your letters to each CRA, so there is really no reason to send separate letters. Your letter with multiple disputes won't be " flagged " because they still don't want to take the time or the effort to treat it differently than all the hundreds of thousands of other letters they receive.

 

I wasn't aware of this. What's your source on this?

When I'm helping people write these dispute letters, I'm usually putting verbage like "AFNI reporting a collection for $300. I don't owe this." Do I need to be putting account numbers as well (which usually are truncated on the reports I get?)

 

Well, the closer the information matches the precise account numbers on the CRA's computers, the better the chances it will be found by the computer software which does the scanning.

How do I know this is done via computer scanner? Former and current CRA employees, at many levels. It is common knowledge inside the industry that with millions of letters received by the CRA's, reading and coding by human beings is something that costs them a lot of money. CRA employees have to do some of the reading and coding, but computer software is responsible for almost 99% of the reading and coding of these letters.