Newbie Question

[Duckybill]

Hello everyone. This is my first post. I just purchased the 3 in 1 monitoring with Equifax. Is it ok to dispute items online or do I need to write letters instead? Thanks!

Bill

[Duckybill]

Well now that I have purchased my credit reports from Equifax I cannot access my credit reports. It keeps saying 'system temporarily unavailable'.

[chane]

Welcome to the forum!

You're much better off writing letters! You'll get much better results!

[94B]

Originally Posted by Duckybill

Hello everyone. This is my first post. I just purchased the 3 in 1 monitoring with Equifax. Is it ok to dispute items online or do I need to write letters instead? Thanks!

Bill

Hi Bill. You really should order hard copies of your credit report from each individual Credit Reporting Agencies before starting the disputing process. Don't use the tri-merge reports or free annual reports.

Next, dispute previous addresses, name variations, and any other personal information that is wrong on your credit reports.

[salesgirl]

wow, I have been away for awhile here. Ok, I hope I am answering in the proper manner here, your question was should you send letters or dispute items online? First off, even though we are in a didital world, nothing beats the real deal. So by all means send a letter. Keep it simple, do not elaborate and set the letter up as a standard letter. No need to get fancy. Also, include correct account numbers and dates. Please send certified mail you want to make sure this was recieved by the proper company/person.
You know how the "big box" companies often say they never recieved it,right?
let that be a lesson here as well. You better believe the credit disputing department will say they have not recieved your dispute letters/letters. Why give them the chance? Lastly, always make two copies of the same dispute letter (for each and every dispute letter).

*this is not to say that disputing online is bad, it is just sensible to write a dispute letter, and certify it.

[94B]

Originally Posted by salesgirl

*this is not to say that disputing online is bad, it is just sensible to write a dispute letter, and certify it.

I agree. Online disputes can sometimes be successful as well but it's generally not recommended as it makes it to easy for the CRA's to electronically match up a couple of data points (i.e. SSN, name, address,etc..) and come back with verified. Secondly, you need the paper trail in case they refuse to follow the law.

[chane]

Why do you think it's best to certify the letter?

I used to work for a credit repair firm and I've never sent a certified letter to a CRA. With a collection agency, we do it 100% of the time, obviously.

As much as I hate the CRAs and don't trust them, we've never really had a problem getting a reply from them.

Sending a certified letter takes more time and costs more and I've heard that it only pisses the CRA off and lots of times they just wont sign for it. Imagine having to sign for 100's if not 1000's of letters everyday? It would piss me off.

I don't know how much truth there is to that whole theory - But, I personally don't recommend sending certified letters to the CRAs.

[94B]

Originally Posted by chane

Why do you think it's best to certify the letter?

In my opinion, certified mail(CM) with a print out from the USPS tracking site will give you the proof of delivery and the date that your dispute was received. I don't recommend sending anything to the CRA's CMRRR unless of course you are contemplating legal action and plan to follow through.

Originally Posted by chane

I used to work for a credit repair firm and I've never sent a certified letter to a CRA. With a collection agency, we do it 100% of the time, obviously.

Well I've always sent my disputes CM to the CRA's and CMRRR to the CA/JDB's.

Originally Posted by chane

As much as I hate the CRAs and don't trust them, we've never really had a problem getting a reply from them.

Well....I am not willing to take a chance as salesgirl mentioned above on the CRA's saying they never received my dispute for whatever reason and then I have no proof. I have never had a problem getting a reply from them having sent it CM but if there was a problem I would most certainly have proof on my side.

Also, let's say that they don't complete their investigation within the alloted time(30 days) what proof do you have of when they received the dispute? The FCRA is clear on when the clock starts ticking in terms of when the investigation SHOULD begin and not when the CRA's get around to it or pick whatever date they choose. How will you hold them accountable under the law if you don't have any proof and they claim something different than what YOU know to be true.

Originally Posted by chane

Sending a certified letter takes more time and costs more and I've heard that it only pisses the CRA off and lots of times they just wont sign for it. Imagine having to sign for 100's if not 1000's of letters everyday? It would piss me off.

I personally don't give a flying fig to what pisses the CRA's off. What I care about is that they properly investigate my disputes and follow the law that governs their industry.

Originally Posted by chane

I don't know how much truth there is to that whole theory - But, I personally don't recommend sending certified letters to the CRAs.

Well.....then we will just have to agree to disagree on this one. My dealings with the CRA's will be via CM.

[chane]

I agree. We'll have to agree to disagree.

I personally don't give a flying fig to what pisses the CRA's off. What I care about is that they properly investigate my disputes and follow the law that governs their industry.

Just wanted to make a comment on this statement.

We all want them to follow the law, but they don't. They violate our federal rights on a daily basis. Their interpretation of the law is much different than ours.

They know they can get by with it 99.9% of the time. They know most consumers won't sue them. And when they do, their lawyers handle it outside of court.

So, unless you plan on tracking everything, hiring a lawyer and suing them, it's completely unnecessary to use certified mail. You may think you're going to sue them, but it will take months of your time. Your lawyer will try everything in his power to get you to settle. In the long run, it's really not worth your time and they know this.

I'm not saying you should "kiss their ass", but I think all of the empty threats of litigation, the quoting of case law and the certified mail is a little over the top. Thousands of people try these fancy credit repair techniques that they learned online by these so called "credit repair experts" that are either outdated or simply unnecessary...and they simple don't work. They don't give two shits about your threats for the reasons stated above. So, pissing them off is really not wise.

Asking someone nicely to do something will go a lot further than demanding that they do it.

So, if you're not planning on suing...skip the certified crap (and 99.9% of you aren't). It's unnecessary. That's my opinion.

[94B]

Originally Posted by chane

We all want them to follow the law, but they don't. They violate our federal rights on a daily basis.

They don't follow the law because consumers do not hold them accountable. One of the ways to do that is keeping a papertrail(proof), learning/researching the law and then applying it to your situation .

Originally Posted by chane

They know they can get by with it 99.9% of the time. They know most consumers won't sue them. And when they do, their lawyers handle it outside of court.

The reason they can get by with it is because majority of the consumers don't know their rights let alone when their rights are being violated. And quite frankly don't care. Generally when things get settled outside of court is because CRA's do not want CL's established against them and for the consumers.

Originally Posted by chane

So, unless you plan on tracking everything, hiring a lawyer and suing them, it's completely unnecessary to use certified mail. You may think you're going to sue them, but it will take months of your time. Your lawyer will try everything in his power to get you to settle. In the long run, it's really not worth your time and they know this.

Having paper trail(proof) doesn't always equate to litigation. Some times having paper trail will be enough for a consumer to reach someone at the top, who is in the position to do what is necessary that it doesn't reach the level of litigation. But without proof you really don't have much to go on.

Originally Posted by chane

I'm not saying you should "kiss their ass", but I think all of the empty threats of litigation, the quoting of case law and the certified mail is a little over the top. Thousands of people try these fancy credit repair techniques that they learned online by these so called "credit repair experts" that are either outdated or simply unnecessary...and they simple don't work. They don't give two shits about your threats for the reasons stated above. So, pissing them off is really not wise.

Not sure how you came up with the statements above from my post alone. I never suggested that someone spew out empty threats of litigation or case laws. I made it clear in my post that if you intend to threaten legal action, make sure they follow through with it, otherwise utilize a different method/

I will leave your "fancy credit repair techniques that they learned online by these so called "credit repair experts" that are either outdated or simply unnecessary...and they simple don't work" comment alone since I have no idea what you are referring to.

Originally Posted by chane

Asking someone nicely to do something will go a lot further than demanding that they do it.

CRA's are NOT our(consumers)friends first and foremost. Their clientele includes OC/CA/JDB's.

Demanding?? Who said anything about that. I am of the opinion that if you have proof, it will go alot further in getting the results you want than a CRA vs Consumer situation(he said she said).

Here's an example of situation without any proof:

Consumer- Yes, hello....Its been over 30 days and I have not received the result of my disputes. My credit report number is XXXXXXXXXX.

CRA- We didn't receive your dispute, we have nothing in our file regarding your dispute.

Consumer- Well I sent it over 30 days ago.

CRA-Well we didn't get your request for an investigation, you might want to go check with your post office.There's nothing we can do.

Consumer- Umm, Umm well then you if you say so then it must be true. But I sent it, I really did. Oh well don't worry because being the nice consumer that I am, I will just send in another request for investigation after all I don't have any PROOF anyways.:rolleyes:

I am sorry but the reasons you list for not sending the disputes CM is not a chance I am willing to take. In my experience, having sent disputes CM has been worth it and not unnecessary as you claim. And I didn't have to threaten litigation especially when I had proof and they were just simply WRONG.