Disputing

[wowchad]

I'm actually doing pretty good with building my score back up after my bankruptcy in 2001 but I would like to be slightly higher when I roll my ARM into a Fixed next month or so.

In my recent "Building your credit" seminar hosted by my local credit union it appears most "Credit Counselors" simply dispute everything on your report and hope for the best. Can I do that myself now that I have all the links to do so without any ill repercussions?

[llecs]

You can certainly do that yourself, but aside from the legal and ethical standpoint of disputing an accurate account, there can be some negative effects to disputing:

• Disputing can drop your score if the baddie was old and gets verified. The DOLA can change and FICO will read it as a newer baddie.
• Disputing can result in accurate lates being added, if an account is verified or updates, when there were none before.
• Disputing can lead to a fraud alert.
• Disputing could lead to a score drop if a disputed account is removed and that account's age helped more than the baddie was hurting.
• Disputing more than once can lead to a frivolous disputer charge by the CRAs.
• Disputing does lead to increased collection activity, including potential lawsuits if within SOL.
• IMO, disputing makes it tougher to remove a baddie in the future.
• Disputing and verifying or updating of a baddie will alert your current creditors and that can lead to a ratejack or a CLD.
• Disputing can lead to a split file with the CRA.
• Some mortgage lenders will frown on or deny a loan if an account is in dispute.

I have read example after example for all of the above. Personally, I experienced all of the above except for the last two. When I first started repair, someone suggested I dispute everything and I did. I still regret it.

[wowchad]

Thank you for pointing that out. It sounded like such a good idea...at first

All are paid in full and there're only three, two from '05, one from11/07 all under $200 so I'll leave it alone.

I have to focus on paying down my credit cards instead to see if I can get out of the mid-600's

American Family raised my house insurance from $600 a yr to over $2000 because of my score though!

[Anonymous]

I would check into another ins company.

[Anonymous]

If you need to dispute your entries to get them deleted then I'd suggest using a different forum. The mods here will delete any post advising how to do this correctly.

[Junejer]

Only if it is advising how to dispute accurate information.

User Guidelines

FICO Forums is intended to provide helpful and useful tips for managing credit and understanding FICO scoring. This is not the place to exchange “credit repair” advice that encourages consumers to provide untrue or misleading information to a credit bureau or lender for the purpose of raising FICO scores or otherwise improving credit ratings, credit histories or credit records. Such material may be edited or removed, and egregious or repeat offenders will be banned from future participation in FICO Forums.

[Anonymous]

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@Junejer wrote:
Only if it is advising how to dispute accurate information.

User Guidelines

FICO Forums is intended to provide helpful and useful tips for managing credit and understanding FICO scoring. This is not the place to exchange “credit repair” advice that encourages consumers to provide untrue or misleading information to a credit bureau or lender for the purpose of raising FICO scores or otherwise improving credit ratings, credit histories or credit records. Such material may be edited or removed, and egregious or repeat offenders will be banned from future participation in FICO Forums.

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How do you know if it is accurate or not? You dispute it to find out. The FCRA says you can dispute anything in your file.

It's one thing to dispute the item to get it deleted, another if you dispute the item to verify if it is reporting correctly.

Message Edited by hobojon on 06-22-2009 09:02 PM

[Junejer]

Hobo, what I am talking about here is when you know that something is accurately reporting on your CR, such as a 30 day late, and you know it was 30 days late. You can't come here (on the MyFICO forums) and say, I know I was late, how do I dispute this to get it removed. That violates our user guidelines.

The FCRA can't govern what is able to be discussed on these forums, the admin that put the site together govern that. As a mod, I just help to enforce the rules.

[Barry]

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hobojon wrote:
If you need to dispute your entries to get them deleted then I'd suggest using a different forum. The mods here will delete any post advising how to do this correctly.

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Great advice, hobojon!

[wowchad]

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@Anonymous wrote:
If you need to dispute your entries to get them deleted then I'd suggest using a different forum. The mods here will delete any post advising how to do this correctly.

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OK that's why I asked. I'm still learning here, and there's a lot to learn!

I do have one unknown item on my EQ (that's not on TU) report from 2003, well assigned and reported in 2003 but says "Date Last Active Dec 01, 2002" and "Status: In Bankruptcy" which was actually filed in 2001. The "Current Balance" is blank.

I'm thinking I may dispute it; since its so old maybe I should leave it though.

This dispute would be a first for me, now I have some more reading-up to do

Message Edited by wowchad on 06-24-2009 01:00 PM