Disputing incorrect information on your credit report can have a positive effect on your credit rating. Generally, removing negative items that are not accurate will increase your credit score, while correcting other information may result in an increase or decrease. Filing a dispute with the formal name to request a correction to your credit report does not directly affect credit scores. However, if the dispute changes certain types of data in your credit report, it could influence your credit scores. For instance, since late payments can have a significant negative impact on credit scores, removing an incorrectly reported late payment from your credit report could result in an improvement in your credit rating.
To challenge an error in your credit report, you must contact both the credit reporting company and the company that provided the information. If you are unable to delete or change the negative credit annotation, you can make it appear as “disputed” as long as it remains on your credit reports. Filing a dispute does not directly affect your score; however, if the information in your credit report changes after processing the dispute, your credit rating may change. To challenge an element of your credit report, you must prove to the relevant authorities that your credit report is inaccurate. Experian and other national credit bureaus send the dispute to the source of the information to verify it before changing a credit report.
It is advisable to review the credit reports of the three national credit bureaus at least once a year and act quickly to correct any inaccuracies you discover. When filing a dispute with credit reporting agencies, the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires them to prove that the item is “in dispute.”Credit scores are based on the content of your credit reports, so changes to those reports may alter your ratings. Some of the information in your credit report has no impact on credit scores, such as identification and address information. If the provider determines that the information is correct and does not update or delete it, you can ask the credit reporting company to include a statement explaining the dispute in your credit file.
