Hello all,
I read something really shocking today about the way Experian, Transunion and Equifax process CR disputes that I think is must-have knowledge for the members of this community. I think I have read elsewhere in the forum that if you use standard form letters to write your disputes to the bureaus they just feed them into a scanning software rather than doing a detailed review with human eyes. But the actual statistics about the extent of this practice are crazy!! Bottom line: write your own individual dispute letters so they are addressed by humans and your delinquencies and errors are actually cleared off of your report!!
I am copying the first bullet of this report, and the full article can be read here: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/12/18/surprising-findings-study-credit-reporting-agencies/
'The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau analyzed data from the three largest CRAs –– Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion –– over the last year. We pored over the 38-page report. Here are a few of the most staggering findings we came across:
1) Credit agencies are letting an automated system pass off 85 percent of all consumer disputes.
Why you should care: Much of the reason CRAs are under the microscope now is to figure out just how accurate they are. According to the CFPB, of the 8 million disputes filed by consumers in 2011, CRAs only fielded about 15 percent in-house. They sent the lion's share off to an automated system called eOSCAR, which in turn passed them off to whichever creditor was responsible for the data in dispute.
Here's the troubling part: For the most part, eOSCAR isn't equipped to handle supplementary materials consumers may send in to plead their case –– like letters or other documentation of their credit history. That means your creditors may never see them. Instead, eOSCAR labels disputes with one of two codes depending on their content and just 26 percent are sent to creditors with any sort of extra information.'
Starting Score: 580