Equifax Dispute - Remove Bad Credit

You can dispute a bad credit listing on your Equifax credit report by creating a dispute letter. In your letter you must identify the disputed listing and provide an explanation as to why it is incorrect.

You can write a dispute letter yourself or you can hire a service to write it on your behalf. You should be aware that a dispute letter must be sent to each credit bureau.

This means that simply disputing an item with Equifax will not remove the item from your Transunion or Experian credit report. Instead you will have to send each of the bureaus a dispute letter.

Reasons for a dispute include; information is wrong, item out of date, account paid in full, not my account and others. The Fair Credit Reporting Act that was passed by congress gives you the right to dispute any listing on your credit that you feel is inaccurate.

In addition this act says that any mark that can not be verified must be removed from your report. This is what the dispute process is based upon.

When the bureaus receive your dispute they will investigate. During this investigation they will contact the creator of the item and request verification of the account, the dates, and the balance.

If the mark can not be verified then it is removed from your credit report. Often an investigation results in the removal of bad credit. This is a result of many businesses being unwilling to spend the time and money verifying disputed debts.

However before the credit bureau will conduct an investigation your dispute must be a valid dispute. There is no way to tell if the bureaus will deem your letter valid or invalid.

Many claim that the bureaus are just avoiding having to hold an investigation so they will deem your dispute invalid and respond with a letter requesting more information about the dispute. It is widely speculated that this is nothing more than a stall tactic used by the bureaus.

It only costs the bureaus money to conduct an investigation. There is no revenue in it for the bureaus, their customers are businesses.

I suggest hiring a service if you have considerable damage to your credit. However if you only have minor damage such as one or two negative listings then you can dispute your report yourself. If you do it yourself just be patient and persistent.

In sum you can remove bad credit items without waiting 7 years. To do this you must dispute the credit bureaus.