How to Write the Perfect Credit Dispute Letter

If you’re in the beginning stages of your credit repair business training, you probably have lots of questions. That’s totally normal when you’re getting started with your credit repair business.

Frequently Asked Questions About Dispute Letters

Once you’ve learned the basics of how to send dispute letters, you may have more detailed questions. Luckily, many credit repair specialists before you have run into the same questions, and you can use their expert knowledge to help you refine your own credit repair business operations.

Q. What should I include in a dispute letter?

A. Specificity and attention to detail are key for getting items successfully removed or corrected.

A good dispute letter is the key to your credit repair success. Here is the basic anatomy of a dispute letter:

• Heading - Your first, middle and last name, home address, and last 4 digits of your Social Security Number
• Identifying information - Round 1 letters must always include a copy of the client’s government-issued photo ID and proof of address
• Subject line - Summarizing the contents of the letter
• The body -- States the purpose, all necessary detailed information, and instructions for follow-up correspondence
• Furnisher name and account number
• Reason for the dispute - Simply choose from the dropdown list in your Credit Repair Cloud software
• Instructions - Explicitly state what you want to happen (ie investigate, correct, or remove the item)
• Signature - Credit Repair Cloud will automatically insert your digital signature

Keep copies of everything you send and make a note of the date the documents were sent and received. This is much easier to do by using credit repair software that was built to automate and scale your business.

Q. What should I dispute first?

A. Start with the lowest-hanging fruit.

When it comes to disputing items on a client’s credit report, start by grabbing the low-hanging fruit. Specifically, look for questionable or inaccurate information that could be negatively affecting the client’s credit, and then dispute it. There are two main ways to do this:

Verification: Ask the credit bureaus to either verify or remove questionable information. If they cannot verify the information with 100% accuracy within 30 days, they must remove the items. You can request verification of a few items at a time.

Factual disputing: You can dispute any items which you know are inaccurate, outdated or incomplete. In this case, you should try to pinpoint errors in the client’s credit report before disputing, and provide proof, if you have it.

Verification and factual disputing are two of the easiest ways to remove negative information; therefore they are a great place to start the dispute process.

Q. How many items can I dispute at one time?

A. You should not dispute more than 5 items at a time with each credit bureau.

If you dispute too many items all at once, the credit bureau may deem your disputes as “frivolous.” If that happens, your disputes are essentially voided, at which point you’ve got a whole new battle on your hands. So, when sending Round 1 letters, keeping it under 5 items will make your letter much more effective.

Q. Do I need to include a reason for the dispute?

A. Yes. Always include a reason and instruction for each item you are disputing.

Don’t be intimidated by including a reason! The truth is, credit bureaus automate 95% of their dispute handling. When they receive the letter, the only use the reason long enough to give it a numeric code and send it on to the furnisher that originally reported the claim. If the furnisher does not respond, the item is deleted--mission accomplished!

Credit Repair Cloud software makes it easy by providing templates for common reasons and instructions. All you have to do is click to choose the most appropriate one.

As you become more confident in your credit repair business, writing dispute letters will become like second nature. Until then (and even after), you’ll have the support of Credit Repair Cloud’s library of over 100 credit dispute letters, plus extensive credit repair business training resources.

Learn more about starting your business and helping your community in this Ultimate Guide to Starting a Credit Repair Business.