Is Your Dispute Letter Convincing?

One of the best “secrets” of credit repair success is that your letter needs to make sense to the person reading it.

Oftentimes when someone emails me asking, “Which letter should I use?” the answer is, which letter makes sense? Put yourself in the place of the person opening the letter. Then ask yourself these questions:

1. Does it look and sound like a genuine, sincere letter (rather than a template off the internet)
   
2. Is there any documentation or proof or a good reason for the dispute?
   
3. Is it clear what action they want you to take? (Are they asking for a detail to be corrected, or are they asking for the entire account to be deleted?)
   

Let’s say that there is an old, paid off collection account that you don’t recognize as yours. You also see that it is with a retailer located in a different state, one you’ve never been to and have never done business with. You remember that there was a misspelling of your name on your Personal Identifiers, so it is plausible that this account belonged to someone who has a similar name to yous.

Now you ask yourself, what should my dispute letter say? Using common sense, you can see that one of those legalese “609 letters” is not the best, most convincing choice. Your letter should explain the issue just as clearly as if you were writing to your grandma. Also…

What documentation can you include to make your letter stronger? Since you live in Alabama and the retailer is in New Jersey, a state you’ve never been to, why not send a copy of your driver’s license showing both the correct spelling of your name and your location with your dispute letter that explains why this account does not belong to you?

Can you see how putting yourself in the place of the person reading the letter will result in success better than mindlessly firing off a template as a “hit or miss” effort?

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