The coronavirus pandemic has been a mental and physical drain for Americans. And during this global crisis, many consumers faced the added stress of dealing with financial services companies that didn’t always follow the rules or were slow to move when the federal government suspended certain loan payments during the pandemic.
The CFPB’s annual consumer response report reveals that credit report inaccuracies more than doubled during the pandemic, signaling dissonance between the laws that were introduced to help consumers during the pandemic, and how servicers reported suspended payments to the credit bureaus.
And it sometimes left consumers to deal with the consequences on their own.
How to Fix Errors On Your Credit Reports
Credit relating to pandemic forbearance programs include incorrect recordings of missed payments or deferments, which can be found in each account section of a credit report. Some forbearance programs started as early as March 2020 and are still applicable, including federal student loan forbearance.
Still, get ready to roll up your sleeves Errors can be tough to remove, If you find an error on your credit report. The FCRA gives consumers the right to dispute incorrect or inaccurate information on their credit reports, and requires bureaus to correct it.
The FCRA makes credit reporting companies and information providers responsible for correcting inaccurate or inaccurate information on a credit report. The Federal Trade Commission lists the way consumers can take to correct credit report errors
Write a dispute letter to the credit reporting company. Include the information you suppose is inaccurate on your credit report, similar as a recording of a missed payment during the forbearance period. This information will be found on your credit report under the payments section for the specific loan or credit account. The FTC provides a sample dispute letter template then and advises consumers to include copies of any documents that support your dispute, while also explaining why you dispute the information and explicitly request that it be corrected.
Be sure to send this letter by certified correspondence with a return receipt requested so you know exactly when the credit reporting company received it. All three of the major credit bureaus also have online options to file credit report disputes, and third party credit monitoring apps including Credit Karma occasionally allow you to file disputes directly through their platform.
The credit agency must investigate the details in question, generally within 30 days, unless it considers your dispute to be “ frivolous” — meaning it’s not a serious or real dispute. The credit agency is also needed to further your information about the inaccuracy to the association that provided it, similar as a credit card company or loanservicer.However, it must notify all three agencies so they can fix the information in your credit report, If that association finds the disputed information is in fact incorrect.
Gain results from the credit bureaus investigation. Credit bureaus are required to give you the results of their dispute in writing, as well as a free copy of your credit report (s) if your dispute results in a change.
Request notices ofcorrection.However, you can request the credit reporting company to send notices of any corrections to anyone who received your credit report in the past six months, If your dispute is successful and a change to your credit report is made. You can also request a corrected copy be sent to anyone who received a copy during the past two years for employment purposes.
Request a statement of the dispute be included in your file and futurereport.However, meaning the credit reporting company does n’t resolve the error, also you should request a statement of dispute to be included in your file and future reports, If your dispute is ineffective. This statement will indicate that you don’t agree with the recorded information and you made an attempt to have it removed from your report.
Write a dispute letter to the information provider. In addition to the steps listed above, be sure to inform the information provider ( similar as a credit card company or loan servicer) that you ’re disputing incorrect information on your credit report. Use the same sample letter as the one used to inform the credit reporting companies. The process of investigation will be the same, and the information provider will have to inform the credit reporting company of your dispute if it’s found to be correct, and it’ll also be required to tell the credit reporting company to update or delete the inaccurate item.