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Disputing a negative credit listing (on credit report) with the Original Creditor is an
investigation, not just verification of the account. Under the current credit laws, Original
Creditors (O.C.) are not required to verify an account.
Disputing an inaccurate or negative listing with the information furnisher or Original Creditor is
a very powerfully tool to a consumer who is trying to repair their own credit. An information
furnisher is any entity reporting information to the credit bureaus about you. This one was
passed in the FACT Act in 2003.
As most of you are thinking, "hey - the Original Creditor probably keeps great records, they
will be able to show proof in an heartbeat and an investigation will not help me at all. Right?"
WRONG! There are not many O.C. that will keep decent records and most credit card
companies keep records for about 12-18 months. If that's the case...and if you have late
marks on your credit report prior to this period...they won't be able to prove you were
late...and they need to remove negative information if they can't prove it, as per the law.
Keep in mind, especially in our current economic times, with all of the bank mergers and
buy-outs record keeping is just going to get worse. All of the lender consolidations over the
recent years, will dictate that acquisitions record-keeping suffers due to drastic job cuts in
personal. This makes proving your case to the credit bureaus even easier (for most). Having
my share in database technology, I can assure you it is not cheap to transfer information from
one database to another on a massive corporate level.
Many clients I have spoken to who have placed calls to their O.C.'s, and the companies have
NO RECORDS at all for them, let alone records of specific late payments, yet these O.C.'s
continue to report negative information on my client's credit reports. This is illegal!
While case law has established for the past few years that the Original Creditor (O.C.) can be
held liable for reporting inaccurate information (Richardson vs. Fleet, Nelson vs. Chase
Manhattan ), the FACTA legislation passed recently allows the consumer to go directly to the
original creditor and dispute information which the original creditor (called the information
furnisher) in the FCRA, has supplied to the credit bureaus.
However before disputing with the original creditor, the CONSUMER MUST HAVE DISPUTED
WITH THE CREDIT BUREAUS first. This is very important.
Again, when you write the Original creditor, you are asking for an INVESTIGATION, not
verification. Under the laws, the OC's are not required to verify an account, only to conduct
an investigation. I agree that these are legal fine hairs, but if you want them to act, you have
to invoke the right laws. O.C.'s are NOT required by law to "verify" anything.
Basically, you can dispute information placed on your credit report by an O.C. in the same
way as you would with a credit bureau. An original creditor must:
Conduct an investigation of the dispute
review all information provided by the consumer relating to the dispute
Respond within 30 days to the investigation
If the information is inaccurate, they must notify the credit bureaus of the mistake and tell the
credit bureau to correct it.
However, the O.C. also can determine that the dispute is frivolous just like a credit bureau
can. Reasons an O.C. can determine a dispute is frivolous:
You just disputed the same thing without changing the reason for the dispute
You haven't provided enough information for the O.C. to conduct an investigation. At the
minimum, you need to identify the account by account number and provide a reason why you
are disputing.
If O.C. DOES determine the dispute is frivolous they MUST notify you in writing by any other
means available to the person within 5 days.
If the O.C. fails to comply with your dispute, they are in violation of the FCRA, but you can't
sue them unless you have disputed with the Credit Bureaus FIRST.
Disputing with the credit bureau FIRST is not something you can shortcut or forget. In order
to place the liability of reporting accurately squarely on the shoulders of the O.C., you must
have disputed the listing with the credit bureaus. This means you have either online, via the
telephone or in writing, disputed a listing with the credit bureaus and then WAITED FOR THE
RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION.
Now, what is the exact procedure when you want to dispute things with the original creditor
(or any other information furnisher)? The steps are:
Dispute the listing with the credit bureau
Wait for the results of the investigation.
If the listing is deleted or modified per your desires, you're done!
If the listing comes back as "verified" or not cleaned up sufficiently to your tastes, write the
Original Creditor (information furnisher) a letter to request an investigation.
If the information furnisher says the results of the investigation is "Verified", then:
Call up the Credit Card company and ask them what kind of documentation they have to
prove the negative mark. Many times they will have nothing.
If they admit to having nothing, send this letter to their legal department
Dear Legal Deparment:
Re: Acct #XXXXXXXX
This letter is in regards to a phone call I placed to your company regarding the account listed
above on <Date >, 2008. I called to inquire about this account that is listed on my Credit
Reports. I spoke to a Customer Service Representative named "X" her employee number is
000, as provided by her. She informed me that your company does not have any information
on this account that it was all sent to a collection agency. How did you investigate this
account with out any documentation? I contacted the collection agency your rep told me
about and they could not validate the debt. This collection agency subsequently removed all
information regarding this account from my credit reports. If this incorrect information is not
removed from my credit reports I will file suit against your company.
Sincerely, Me
One more time: When you write the Original creditor, you are asking for an INVESTIGATION,
not verification.
investigation, not just verification of the account. Under the current credit laws, Original
Creditors (O.C.) are not required to verify an account.
Disputing an inaccurate or negative listing with the information furnisher or Original Creditor is
a very powerfully tool to a consumer who is trying to repair their own credit. An information
furnisher is any entity reporting information to the credit bureaus about you. This one was
passed in the FACT Act in 2003.
As most of you are thinking, "hey - the Original Creditor probably keeps great records, they
will be able to show proof in an heartbeat and an investigation will not help me at all. Right?"
WRONG! There are not many O.C. that will keep decent records and most credit card
companies keep records for about 12-18 months. If that's the case...and if you have late
marks on your credit report prior to this period...they won't be able to prove you were
late...and they need to remove negative information if they can't prove it, as per the law.
Keep in mind, especially in our current economic times, with all of the bank mergers and
buy-outs record keeping is just going to get worse. All of the lender consolidations over the
recent years, will dictate that acquisitions record-keeping suffers due to drastic job cuts in
personal. This makes proving your case to the credit bureaus even easier (for most). Having
my share in database technology, I can assure you it is not cheap to transfer information from
one database to another on a massive corporate level.
Many clients I have spoken to who have placed calls to their O.C.'s, and the companies have
NO RECORDS at all for them, let alone records of specific late payments, yet these O.C.'s
continue to report negative information on my client's credit reports. This is illegal!
While case law has established for the past few years that the Original Creditor (O.C.) can be
held liable for reporting inaccurate information (Richardson vs. Fleet, Nelson vs. Chase
Manhattan ), the FACTA legislation passed recently allows the consumer to go directly to the
original creditor and dispute information which the original creditor (called the information
furnisher) in the FCRA, has supplied to the credit bureaus.
However before disputing with the original creditor, the CONSUMER MUST HAVE DISPUTED
WITH THE CREDIT BUREAUS first. This is very important.
Again, when you write the Original creditor, you are asking for an INVESTIGATION, not
verification. Under the laws, the OC's are not required to verify an account, only to conduct
an investigation. I agree that these are legal fine hairs, but if you want them to act, you have
to invoke the right laws. O.C.'s are NOT required by law to "verify" anything.
Basically, you can dispute information placed on your credit report by an O.C. in the same
way as you would with a credit bureau. An original creditor must:
Conduct an investigation of the dispute
review all information provided by the consumer relating to the dispute
Respond within 30 days to the investigation
If the information is inaccurate, they must notify the credit bureaus of the mistake and tell the
credit bureau to correct it.
However, the O.C. also can determine that the dispute is frivolous just like a credit bureau
can. Reasons an O.C. can determine a dispute is frivolous:
You just disputed the same thing without changing the reason for the dispute
You haven't provided enough information for the O.C. to conduct an investigation. At the
minimum, you need to identify the account by account number and provide a reason why you
are disputing.
If O.C. DOES determine the dispute is frivolous they MUST notify you in writing by any other
means available to the person within 5 days.
If the O.C. fails to comply with your dispute, they are in violation of the FCRA, but you can't
sue them unless you have disputed with the Credit Bureaus FIRST.
Disputing with the credit bureau FIRST is not something you can shortcut or forget. In order
to place the liability of reporting accurately squarely on the shoulders of the O.C., you must
have disputed the listing with the credit bureaus. This means you have either online, via the
telephone or in writing, disputed a listing with the credit bureaus and then WAITED FOR THE
RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATION.
Now, what is the exact procedure when you want to dispute things with the original creditor
(or any other information furnisher)? The steps are:
Dispute the listing with the credit bureau
Wait for the results of the investigation.
If the listing is deleted or modified per your desires, you're done!
If the listing comes back as "verified" or not cleaned up sufficiently to your tastes, write the
Original Creditor (information furnisher) a letter to request an investigation.
If the information furnisher says the results of the investigation is "Verified", then:
Call up the Credit Card company and ask them what kind of documentation they have to
prove the negative mark. Many times they will have nothing.
If they admit to having nothing, send this letter to their legal department
Dear Legal Deparment:
Re: Acct #XXXXXXXX
This letter is in regards to a phone call I placed to your company regarding the account listed
above on <Date >, 2008. I called to inquire about this account that is listed on my Credit
Reports. I spoke to a Customer Service Representative named "X" her employee number is
000, as provided by her. She informed me that your company does not have any information
on this account that it was all sent to a collection agency. How did you investigate this
account with out any documentation? I contacted the collection agency your rep told me
about and they could not validate the debt. This collection agency subsequently removed all
information regarding this account from my credit reports. If this incorrect information is not
removed from my credit reports I will file suit against your company.
Sincerely, Me
One more time: When you write the Original creditor, you are asking for an INVESTIGATION,
not verification.