I have little experience in the area. I can tell you what I did and the results I got. Others can/will chime in about the better way to do things or why to choose one over the other. So take my experience for what it's worth.
After obtaining my free credit reports from all 3 CRA, the first thing I did, since I had some time on my hands before I needed to have my scores pulled, was a direct dispute with each CRA on the medicals. I cited HIPAA on my complaints for the medical debts. I did them online at each of their sites.
Equifax deleted them all immediately. Experian took their 30 days and obviously sent the disputes to the CA's. There were several accounts but 2 main CA's. One CA deleted theirs (or didn't respond). The other verified theirs. TU took their 30 days as well and theirs came back as verified as well-but there was only one on there from a 3rd CA. So between 3 CA's and several accounts, 1 CA only reports to TU and the other 2 only report to Experian and Equifax. Weird but ok.
After that I sent GW's to the CA's.
The CA from TU flat out refused. Same with OC.
On Experian, the CA flat out refused. Then I tried the OC's. One flat out refused and one agreed.
For medicals (all paid):
Was:
TU had 1
Equifax had 7
Experian had 7
Now:
TU has 1
Equifax has 0
Experian has 4
The process was frustrating and time consuming, but I think worth it in the end!
