Why???

[NY_Beauty]

Why does disputing items on your CR lower your score?  It's not fair!

[RobertEG]

The theory is that it is fair.

If the accuracy of information is disputed, then removing it from scoring until the issue is resolved is supposedly in the interest of the consumer.

Disputes should be resolved within 30'ish days of filing, so the period of scoring exclusion should be brief.

The problem is that the CRAs are notorious for not removing the disptue flag as a simple admininstrative matter when sending the Results of Notice of Reinvestigation, which formally concludes the dispute.

[Mike_B03]

I think it depends. As weird as it sounds, a (what looks like a) negative account may actually be helping your credit score. 

An example would be a 6 year old charged off account that shows a $0 balance. It's so old that the charge off doesn't weigh much on the score but the fact that it's old actually helps the average age of accounts. 

[NY_Beauty]

Hopefully when resolved my scores will go back up. So sad.

[llecs]

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@NY_Beauty wrote:

Why does disputing items on your CR lower your score?  It's not fair!

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A lowered FICO score is one of the many things that can go wrong when disputing items, accurate or invalid. Nothing wrong with disputing, but there are many risks involved and this is one.

Per FICO scoring, active disputes only impact OC accounts. FICO will ignore the balance, CL, and payment history. So, really the only account that can lead to a FICO drop in a dispute is a CC, and that had to have had a positive impact on util. There are several scenarios that can lead to an increase at the start of the dispute.

Once the dispute clears and it no longer is listed as a dispute, and then you could see a drop from those temporary gains from the onset of the dispute. It also isn't uncommon for a creditor to update the reporting to where it was worse than before and that also can lead to a net loss (e.g. added lates, changed stati, added comments, etc.). 

While disputing is a tool on misreporting accounts, there are steps that should be taken before the dispute (e.g. a DV, police report if not yours, getting apayment history from a creditor if lates are misreported, etc.)

[ktl72455]

I just did a dispute on 2 items on mine so I guess if I see a drop in my score I wont worry as much , hopeing once they are off it will actually increase my score.

[RobertEG]

Another of the myriad of advantages to using the direct dispute process as opposed to disputing through a CRA is that it might avoid the placing of a dispute flag in the consumer's credit file.

When disputing through a CRA, the dispute flag is automatic.  It's their dispute to decide.

When sending a direct dispute to the furnisher, the CRA has no knowledge of or involvement in the dispute itself unless the furnisher reports notification of the dispute to the CRA,  I doubt that many take the time to make that separate reporting.

[drkaje]

@ RobertEG,

I don't know if many appreciate the benefits of directly disputing with the furnisher of information when it comes to actual inaccuracies.

[sphinx313]

Honestly I'd rather lose a few points than have the exact opposite happen to me. I have active disputes which caused my score to rise because of the items the dispute ignores. Basically, if the disputes end in the disputee's favor then I will theoretically lose points. I haven't really factored them into my overall credit growth because of the situation, but now that I am so close to 600 I will be upset if they drop.

[NY_Beauty]

Score now back up to 656... I can't figure this stuff out.