Credit repair

[Anonymous]

Hello all, I just have a quick question. I am working with a credit repair agency to try to remove one bad account off of my EQUIFAX &TRANSUNION credit reports. The bad account is not reporting to Experian but I am told by this credit repair agency that it is necessary to send the disputes to ALL 3 credit bureaus in order for the process to work correctly. Is that true? My experian report has no bad accounts no late payments or anything and I am also told that it could be a possibility that if I do send the disputes to Experian that they might actually put the bad account on that report as well. I have the dispute forms in hand, should I send it to just the two bureaus or all three?

[calyx]

Also quick question:  Is the account that is being reported inaccurate in some way?
Since there is no account on EX, there is definitely no basis for a dispute, and it would not be a valid and you should not send the dispute to EX.

If the company verifies the information as correct (for EQ/TU) - then it will likely depress your FICO scores further, and yes, there is a chance that upon reinvestigation, the original company/account holder could report the updated/corrected/original (whatever is most appropriate) information to all three major credit bureaus (and possibly the secondaries), even if you don't dispute it with all three.     This is why I ask the first question: is the account being reported inaccurate (credit repair agencies tend to dispute everything - valid or not).

I would add that there is nothing a credit repair agency can do for you that you cannot do for free, and most of us are happy to help you work through things.

[Anonymous]

The account that I am trying to dispute off is indeed accurate and is already paid off

[Anonymous]

"Paid off" as in paid in full and is now reflecting as "paid collection"

[Anonymous]

Then there is no basis for dispute. Disputes are intended for correction or removal of inaccurate entries. There is a lot of bad information floating around out there saying to dispute everything in the hopes of it being removed. On occasion that works. Much more often it simply comes back as validated, is refreshed with new reporting, and hurts your scores again.

The proper way to approach it is through a goodwill letter campaign. Search for “the saturation technique” on the forums and you’ll find everything could could possibly want to know about the proper way to try and have the account removed.

[Anonymous]

I feel like the goodwill letters will do no good at this point because me going through this agency is kinda my last ditch effort. I already tried to dispute the account myself online two times in the past and according to what I read on the web is maybe the worst thing I could have done so I believe at this point it is validated. I just don't know what else to do.

[Remedios]

They cannot dispute it in any other way than what you did already 

If you feel like paying somebody to further ruin your credit, you're free to do so but i would really strongly advise you against it 

Also, dispute same account multiple times without providing a proof of inaccurate reporting will lead CRA to deem those disputes as frivolous. They might have already 

If you continue disputing without providing some kind of proof that what's on your CR requires correction, you can expect same outcome. At some point you need to let it go as you're hurting your credit more each time it comes back as validated. 

It's totally up to you if you want to proceed and if you do, good luck. 

[Anonymous]

What do you propose that I do?

[OmarGB9]

Goodwill letters. All you can do. May take months, possibly years, and even then there's no guarantee, but it's your best bet IMO.