After spending over 4 hours on the phone with all the 3 CRA's about removing dispute comments, I figured out that they only hold your credit file and offer the "total picture" (your credit report) to you as the consumer as well as anyone that you have pull your credit file (among other things). With that said, since they are for all intents and purposes the "middle man" between you and your account holders, they are not the ones actually reporting your credit information, they are simply regurgitating what the original creditors, collection agencies, and any other agency that has an effect on you credit file. Another way of putting it is that the 3 credit bureaus simply collect all the information together into a credit file that provides an overall picture of what you as the consumer have for credit information so that if you need to obtain future credit, your potential lender(s) know how you've managed your credit in the past.
I know that was long-winded but it doesn't get stated enough in this forum. Now, my point to all that was to let you in on a little secret, that shouldn't be a secret at all... The original creditors are the one's submitting the dispute comments as well as any other pertenant information on the account. Therefore, it is more expuditious for the consumer to contact them directly to have them remove dispute comments. Let me give you the two scenarios:
Scenario 1 (remove dispute thru CRA's):
1. Consumer see's an account with a dispute comment and decides to have it removed (for various reasons, my recent reasoning was due to my mortgage lender not allowing me to close without disputes removed entirely).
2. Consumer contacts the big 3 CRA's to have the dispute comment(s) removed.
3. The big 3 CRA's have to issue a NEW dispute to remove the original dispute. (the word dispute should be changed to investigation and I say that because this second "dispute" is really the CRA's asking the original creditor(s) to varify the info and informing them that the account is under investigation). Under law the CRA's have to resolve the NEW dispute within 30 days and are under no obligation to due so sooner than those 30 days. ***The reason they are under the 30 day window is because they are submitting a new dispute to the original creditor and therefore it is out of their hands until they receive a response from the original creditor.***
4. Several things can happen at this stage in the process. Either the original creditor replies with "the consumer no longer disputes the account" and the CRA removes it OR the original creditor doesn't reply and the CRA has to remove the comment or the account entirely (I'm not sure which). In most cases the original credit needs the consumer to contact them directly to inform them that the consumer is in fact no longer disputing the account.
Scenario 2 (contact OC directly):
1. Consumer see's an account with a dispute comment and decides to have it removed (for various reasons, my recent reasoning was due to my mortgage lender not allowing me to close without disputes removed entirely).
2. Consumer contacts the OC to inform them that they no longer dispute the account and to no longer report the dispute comment(s) to the 3 CRA's.
3. The OC updates their files and reports to the CRA's the account info without the dispute comment(s).
It is wise to contact the Original Creditor up front because they are issuing the account information to the big 3. The big 3 are just pulling all your credit info together from your accounts and putting it into your credit file.
I've had a dispute removed within 3 days by contacting the original creditor directly and then confirming with the big 3 CRA's that the account information was updated, therefore removing the dispute comment.
I may be WAAAAY off base and inaccurate so YMMV but this is the information I've gathered in dealing with MY dispute comments.
******%%%%^^^^^^^&&&&& BE CAREFUL WITH COLLECTIONS ACCOUNTS!!! You may not want to contact them directly, EVER! &&&&&^^^^^^^%%%%******
