Style of Dispute Letters

I can't vouch for the letters since I just started but I doubt they'll toss the legal letters out.

The ones that would be discarded would be those that appear frivilous, i.e. too many letters at once.

GT

 

i have used the sample letters posted and i have also used Erica's simple letter (I don't know anything about this account. Please prove it with something that shows my signature). I have used the letter's in the sample forum more frequently but they all seem to work okay.

 

In a pile of opinions about this, here's mine:

A few years ago one of the major credit repair firms who sends literally thousands of disputes every week (who will remain nameless, lol) conducted a study (well known to its clients who took time to read all the PDF files, etc.) where they sent legalistic disputes as well as plain-language disputes. The legalistic disputes all mentioned the FCRA and 30-day limits, etc., as if the CRAs had never heard of that before, example:

"Please delete this misleading information, and supply a corrected credit profile to all creditors who have received a copy within the last 6 months, or the last 2 years for employment purposes. Additionally, please provide the name, address, and telephone number of each credit grantor or other subscriber. Under federal law, you have 30 days to complete your re-investigation. Be advised that the description of the procedure used to determine the accuracy and completeness of the information is hereby requested as well, to be provided within 15 days of the completion of your re-investigation."

The plain-language ones were written as if Joe Dumb Citizen had innocently discovered a problem and was rightfully steamed about it, viz.:

"How could you do this to me? The Sears comments on my file are incorrect, and I demand that you change this because you are ruining my credit with this incorrect information! I won't be able to get my car loan! Please correct this soon, and please write or call me on the phone to let me know when you have done so! Thank you!"

Care to guess which ones were handled positively more often by the underpaid staff whose job it is to read these day after day at the credit bureaus? The ones that looked like they came out of a credit repair manual (and pretty much all looked alike -- FCRA, 30 days, etc.) didn't do as well as the ones that looked original and innocently righteous. As a result, that particular credit repair firm began sending all of their disputes in the plain-spoken way. A couple of those letters have found their way to this board, and they're sometimes quite funny. (One such letter said, "You'd better correct my MBNA Visa comments or suffer the consequences!" Happily, that dispute succeeded. You can read more about that by doing a search on this board with keywords "suffer the consequences".)

Drawing from that data, here's the way I've lived my credit repair life with some success, lol:

1) First-level, plain old CRA disputes are sent with just plain language, something like, "There's something wrong with the JCPenney account history. I was never late with this account, so please check it for errors and then revise it accordingly." There are better non-legalistic plain-language dispute letters floating around that don't look like they emerged from every credit repair guidebook ever written.

2) Requests for goodwill adjustments (i.e., begging the creditor directly to revise everything to paid on-time) gets a plain-language -- but more sophisticated -- letter. I modified one marci posted and use that one.

3) Everything else gets the full legal treatment, LOL. This has included validation letters, follow-up letters, letters accompanying lawsuits, settlement offers, etc. At this level, you WANT to look like an attorney just hammered out something for you.

That's the way I've categorized all of this vis-a-vis writing style. But as they say, your mileage may indeed vary.

Doc