It looks ultra-legal and so smart, adding 15 U.S. Code § 1681s–2 in your dispute letter to demand removal of a derogatory account. But what does it really mean? And does it make sense for your situation?
Feel free to read the code for yourself HERE. What it boils down to is a list of requirements for the creditors (also called furnishers, because they furnish/give information to the credit bureaus). It tells them the information they report must be “complete and accurate.”
If you dispute the information, they must promptly report that it is disputed by the consumer (so anyone reading the report will know that account may or may not be accurate).
Upon receiving a dispute from you, they must conduct an investigation, review all relevant information you provide to them with the dispute, and then report the results.
They have a duty to correct “incomplete or inaccurate” information.
When reporting a delinquency, collection, or charge-off, they must report it in a timely manner, which is specified as within 90 days. (It is to your benefit that they aren’t required to report it sooner; although, most do. Student loans don’t.)
If you are an attorney, it makes perfect sense for you to include the U.S. Code in your letter that is printed on law office stationery. If you’re not an attorney, then read the code for yourself and make sure it makes sense to put in your letter. Otherwise, you will sound like a foolish person or someone copying down legalese without even checking to see if it applies. You don’t want your file to get flagged as “frivolous”!
Another thing: write your letter in such a way that it sounds like you wrote it. If you’re not in the legal business, you don’t normally speak like a lawyer, do you? The person reading your letter is not stupid, and they can tell the difference between a genuine letter and an attempted “snow job.”
Letters are included in Repair Your Credit Like the Pros, and when you request the templates in .docx form for easy edit, you also get real life sample letters that have worked for others in the past. Reading these gives you ideas for how to customize your own letter without going overboard.
As always, thank you for reading. I do my best to provide useful information in an easy-to-understand way.
I had purchase both of your book Build and Protect Your Credit Like the Pros and Repair Your Credit Like the Pros; they are excellent books to read I really enjoyed them both.
Thank you, May. Your kind compliment means a lot to me!