Having negative reports on your credit report can negatively impact your credit score. This can be an issue, especially if the negative reports are inaccurate. If you’ve successfully stopped a foreclosure, your credit report may even reflect a foreclosure that didn’t happen.
If you have incorrect reports on your credit report, you can dispute items on your credit report. Disputing inaccurate credit statements is a good practice to make sure that your credit score reflects your credit usage.
Dealing with credit issues and lenders can be stressful and overwhelming. An attorney can help you as you work with lenders to dispute credit issues.
Contact Denbeaux Law today to learn more about how we may be able to help you with disputing credit inaccuracies.
Does a Credit Dispute Hurt Your Credit?
Disputing something on your credit report will have no impact on your credit score. The action taken after a credit dispute may impact your credit score, but the dispute itself will have no impact. It’s your right to dispute inaccurate reporting that is hurting your credit score.
Disputing inaccuracies in personal information on your credit report will have no impact on your credit score. This information will simply be corrected with no change to your credit score.
What Does The Dispute Process Look Like?
When you dispute something on your credit report, the credit bureau is required to investigate and correct any inaccuracies on your credit report.
While the item is being investigated, it will be marked as disputed on your credit report. After review, a dispute correction may improve your credit score.
For example, correcting a report that is incorrectly showing a high credit card balance will lower your credit utilization ratio and improve your credit score.
When to Dispute
You can view your credit report once a year from all three credit bureaus, and you should check your credit report regularly. You should dispute any inaccuracies like late payments or accounts that you don’t have.
Disputing a legitimate account will not remove it from your credit report. Any legitimate credit information that is disputed will stay on your credit report after investigation.
While you should dispute any inaccurate information, trying to keep your disputing activity as minimal as possible is a good idea. Accounts with many disputed accounts could look like poorly managed credit to lenders when applying for new credit.
Foreclosures and Credit Reporting
Foreclosure can have a negative impact on your credit report. Having a foreclosure on your credit report may seem huge, but your credit score can recover from a foreclosure.
A foreclosure will stay on your credit report for 7 years. After seven years have passed, and even while the foreclosure is still on your credit report, there are a few things you can do to improve your credit score. Regularly reviewing your credit report, keeping your credit utilization low, and making timely payments can help you build and improve your credit score.
Possible Dispute Outcomes
There are multiple possible outcomes of a credit report dispute. The result may vary based on what the credit bureaus find and how it will impact your credit report.
Updated
If your disputed item is listed as updated on your credit report, this means that the information you disputed has been revised or that the information has been verified as accurate and left, but other information has been updated.
Deleted
An item that is deleted from your credit report will be completely removed from your report.
Processed
An item marked as processed on your credit report means that it has been updated or deleted.
Remains
Remains is the denotation for a disputed item that will stay on your credit report. If something is kept on your credit report, it means that the company reporting the information has certified that the item is accurate.
Disputing Items On Your Credit Report
It’s important to regularly check your credit report and dispute any incorrect information that you find. Inaccurate information can make it difficult for you to get approved for credit in the future.
The dispute process varies with each credit bureau, but it should be relatively simple. If you have issues with your credit report or are dealing with a lender, an attorney can help you through the process.
Joshua Denbeaux is an experienced New Jersey attorney dedicated to protecting consumer rights. If you’re struggling with credit report issues, contact us today to learn more about how we may be able to help you.
