Credit Report Dispute
The formal process under the FCRA for challenging inaccurate information on a credit report with the bureaus or the furnisher.
If something on your credit report is wrong, outdated, or can’t actually be verified, federal law gives you a real process to fight it — a credit report dispute. You can file it either with the bureau reporting the item (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) or go straight to whoever actually reported it to them, like a lender, collector, or hospital billing office.
Once you file, the bureau generally has 30 days to investigate — sometimes 45 — and they’re supposed to pass your dispute along to whoever furnished the information and pull it or fix it if it can’t be verified as accurate. If they come back and say it checks out, it stays on your report, but you’re still entitled to attach a short statement explaining your side of it.
Some situations that are genuinely worth disputing: a debt that shows unpaid when you already settled it, an account that isn’t even yours (mixed identity or outright fraud), something older than the FCRA’s 7-year reporting limit, or — specific to medical bills — a paid medical collection or one under $500 that’s still showing even though the credit bureaus agreed to stop reporting those back in 2022-2023 (check this site’s medical debt page for exactly where that policy stands right now).
Frequently asked
- How long does a credit report dispute take?
- Credit bureaus generally must complete an investigation within 30 days of receiving a dispute (45 days in some circumstances, such as disputes based on information a consumer provides after the initial request).