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3 Reasons Certified Mail is a Must When Disputing Your Credit Report

We all like to take the path of least resistance, right? When it comes to disputing incorrect items on your credit report, it’s obviously much easier to just click a few buttons and use the online dispute forms provided by the Credit Bureaus.

Well, that’s typically a recipe for completely wasting your time. Here’s why:

1. It makes the dispute way too fast and easy to investigate: Online disputes are usually put directly into the credit bureau’s electronic verification system, which moves the process along much faster. That’s a bad thing. Remember, with the 30 day timeline given under law for verification, the more time it takes them, the better chances you have of getting an item removed.

2. Deleted items are more likely to re-appear: Generally, online disputes fall under the category of “Expedited Dispute Resolution” under the FCRA, where certain rules do not have to be followed by the credit bureaus. With most disputes made online instead of by mail, they are not required to tell the creditor you even disputed it at all. Also, you lose the right to request method of verification, and the 5 day re-insertion written notice requirement does not apply. All of that makes re-insertion of a previously deleted item much more likely during the next reporting cycle.

3. Follow-up on disputes becomes more difficult: Disputing incorrect items on your credit report is much more efficient and effective when you have a good paper trail and documentation. This is simply not possible with online disputes and you may find yourself back to square one.

So what should you do? Obviously disputing incorrect items by mail is the next best alternative. However, there’s still a potential problem you can run into. By not using certified mail, you are failing to tightly hold the credit bureaus to the 30 day timeline for verification of disputes.

By always using certified mail to dispute your credit report, you have a well documented paper trail, and the 30 day verification timeline can be tracked accurately.

While it’s very tempting to just sit down and click away online, doing just a little extra work and using certified mail for all disputes will go a long way in improving your success rate.

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