Dispute time limit

[Anonymous]

I have submitted a dispute to my mortgage company for a 30 day late on my credit report. I received acknowledgment that they received my correspondence, but I have not heard anything since.  It is coming up on 30 days, and I'm curious what should happen after 30 days without hearing back from the creditor? I've heard that legally, they have to respond within that time frame.  Is this true when disputing directly with the creditor, or only when disputing through the bureaus?

[RobertEG]

You filed what is referred to as a direct dispute.

The implementing rules for direct disputes are set forth at 16 CFR 660.4, and set the period for a furnisher to respond to your direct dispute as being the same as that provided to a CRA to respond to a dispute that is filed with them.

More specifically, the CRA dispute process, and thus also the direct dispute process, sets a period of (normally) 30 days for completion of the CRA reinvestigation, and up to 5 business days thereafter for sending of the Notice of Results. 

The creditor has 30 days to complete their investigation, and another 5 business days (which can be up to 8 calendar days) to then mail their notice of results.

Add to that normal delivery time, and it can take up to 45'ish days from filing of the dispute before a clear issue of timeliness arises.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I have submitted a dispute to my mortgage company for a 30 day late on my credit report. I received acknowledgment that they received my correspondence, but I have not heard anything since.  It is coming up on 30 days, and I'm curious what should happen after 30 days without hearing back from the creditor? I've heard that legally, they have to respond within that time frame.  Is this true when disputing directly with the creditor, or only when disputing through the bureaus?

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Dosn't the "clock" start from the date of receipt acknowledgment? Not from the date you sent it

[Anonymous]

Great info, thank you.  So here's the million dollar question...what do I do now?  How do I get the mark removed?

[RobertEG]

What was the basis for supporting your dispute of the reported delinquency?

If it is, in fact, accurate, then you can pursue request for their good-will deletion.

If it is inaccurate and they verify its accuracy, you then have the option to bring civil action on the basis that their verification was not reasonable.

[RobertEG]

Yes, the period begins with the date of receipt by the CRA (or in the case of a direct dispute, date of receipt by the furnisher)

[Anonymous]

I was under the impression that if the creditor does not respond the dispute within that time period, they had to remove the mark on the credit report.  The more that I read about it, I'm thinking that is not the case.  It sounds like you need to submit a follow up request, and then persue legal action.  Is this the case?

[RobertEG]

The furnisher is required to complete their investigation of a direct disute within 30 days of filing, and send their notice of results within 5 business days thereafter.

However, neither the FCRA nor the implementing direct dispute rules at 16 CFR 660.4 et seq include any specific descritpion of the process for handling lack of compliance.

Thus, you can follow the standard process of filing a complaint with the CFPB, or filing your own civil action contesting damages for their violation of FCRA 623(a)()8)/

However, while they should report deletion of the disputed information if they are unable to verify its accuracy or to correct so as to overcome an agreed inaccuracy, any such deletion is not absolute.  They can always provide verification at a later time and reinsert the information, so forcing deletion based on lack of response to a direct dispute will not necessarily prevent reinsertion once verification is provided.

Being a few days late, for example, in providing verification might result in a nasty gram from the CFPB, but would not mandate deletion of the now verified information.