Hi, I have a question about credit repair. I am new to this board but, I have found your information to be very helpful as I work on repairing my credit. My question is that I have disputed several collection accounts with Equifax that have been paid off. The dates of last activity range from 03/94 to 12/95. I disputed these accounts with Equifax stating that the dates of last activity were wrong. My updated credit report states that on one of the collection accounts that "The consumer disputes this account". The other 2 collection accounts have nothing on them. I don't understand. I thought if they contacted the company that they would either have to remove this information (If company did not respond) or update the account info. Should I try to re-dispute these accounts. I know that the info will be removed in a couple of years but, I need to raise my fico score. If you have any advise this will be helpful. Thanks. Sorry if this post was kind of long.
I had the same problem with Equifax. Their explanation is that once they investigate an item and it is "verified", they put "customer disputes this account" notation beside the account. Basically, they don't reinvestigate items with this notation. I don't know how truthful the rep's explanation was because my experience has been that they often don't have a clue what they're talking about. A few folks on this site have had luck having disputed items removed using Equifax's on-line dispute form. You may want to give that a try. The web address is posted a few pages back. Good luck!
I work with Lexington Law Firm that does credit repair work (http://www.creditrights.com) and I might have some helpful advice. There's no reason to dispute the dates of the collection accounts. When you dispute the internal accuracy of the account, there is no possibility that they will delete it - even if the agency fails to respond. In other words, don't bother disputing the dates. It won't do your FICO score any good. If you want the items to be deleted, you'll need to challenge the very existence of the accounts. The credit bureaus call it a "not mine" type of dispute (though you need not lie and say that they're not yours in order to dispute the accounts this way.) For example you might say, "I don't recall having an account like with these dates. Please delete it right away."
