Observations about the Experian online dispute system. Will take a while to read, but is well worth your time. PART ONE 1. The Lexington self-help guide says that when disputing info w/ a CRA, it's always better to deal w/ the main CRA than w/ a local affiliated bureau. Of course given one's current address, one really doesn't have any choice; Which is why they offer to change your address temporarily when disputing, to an area where there is no local affiliate. My EXP local affiliate is CBA Info Svcs in Cherry Hill, NJ. HOWEVER, WHEN DISPUTING ONLINE, MY DISPUTE IN HANDLED BY THE EXPERIAN MAIN OFFICE IN ALLEN, TX. You could also tell this when you get the "final results" announcement to your e-mail address. When I pull a CR from the Experian web site, the last part of it says I should contact CBA in NJ @ 1800-XXXXXX. But when I get the investigation results of an ONLINE DISPUTE, I'm instructed to contact Experian's main office, not the local NJ affiliate, if I have questions about the process. So to all those who prefer to dispute only in writing: You may want to reconsider. PART TWO If you wish to remove a tradeline that was opened following an inquiry to your Experian, dispute the inquiry first, if you legally can. This will remove some of the traces when they investigate your main dispute concerning the tradeline itself. This advice is similar to the one saying you should not dispute a BK until all accounts marked "included in BK" are removed. Removing traces makes it difficult for them to verify. In the case of Chevron, as we've learned, the mere dispute of the inquiry may cause the removal of the resulting tradeline. PART THREE Here's another way to remove tradelines marked as "open". Mine was marked open but was actually closed. (Whether they get re-inserted or not is another question). If you dispute online, this is the sequence of events: (i) You dispute the tradeline as closed; (ii) They do not investigate it! Instead, their software would do 2 things: First, it will place a consumer statement saying it's closed by the consumer, BUT WILL NOT ACTUALLY CLOSE IT. Second, it will place a note saying: "This account has been verified and updated on xx/yy". (iii) Next, you dispute again, this time choosing (from the pull-down menu) the option saying you wish to remove the consumer statement attached to that tradeline. It will be removed automatically within 1-2 days. So, you're now left w/ an account that says "open" and a "Verified on xx/yy" note, while no real verification reference exists in their files. (iv) Finally, you dispute that tradeline again, choosing "other" as the reason for your dispute. In the details box, say you want an exact description of how they verified that tradeline (since, as you recall, it still carries the "verified" notation". As this is an "other" category dispute, it is routed to a human and will take 1-2 weeks to process. The human, seeing there's no verification reference, will probably remove the tradeline. Happened in my case, and I'm not sorry for it because (A) it was a duplicate account; and (B) I have only provided truthful information throughout my dealing w/ their system. Saar
