What’s the difference between validation, verification, and disputing?
What role do they play in credit repair?
Whether you’re a brand new Credit Hero or you have a growing business and have already changed TONS of lives, these terms can get so easily misused and confusing!
So today, I’m going to take the confusion out and break down the meaning of these three terms and the role they play in credit repair!
Let’s start with the actual definition of the word …
Validation is “the action of making or declaring something legally or officially acceptable.”
Validation protects consumers’ rights!
Surprisingly enough, validation doesn’t necessarily relate to the credit repair process, and it’s often mixed up with “verification” … which is a whole different term!
Validation is a process used specifically to help protect consumer’s legal rights under the FCRA.
It’s used to help stop debt collectors from harassing consumers and also as a defensive strategy to protect consumers from debt collectors unfairly attempting to collect time-barred and/or disputed debts.
Remember - just because a debt collector says you owe a debt doesn’t mean it’s true.
Here’s why this matters as a Credit Hero...
If you want to dive deeper into these rules, they’re clearly spelled out in section 809 of the FDCPA.
Now, there’s a BIG difference between the proof debt collectors must provide to a consumer and what they must provide to a court.
Debt collectors are often able to easily validate debts with consumers that are more recent because the bar is set very low and debt collectors are only required to provide limited information.
This is really important to understand because as debts age, records are lost and accounts are sold and resold, resulting in further loss of records, which invalidates the debt.
So, why in the world should your client be responsible for debt if it’s not valid or expired?
They shouldn't!
This is a powerful strategy and legal maneuver, but it’s not part of the credit repair process yet.
Once you document everything, if the debt collector fails to validate - you can then send the paper trail to the bureaus as a reason to delete.
Verification is the process of establishing the truth, accuracy, or validity of something.
Often it’s misinterpreted as a legal maneuver when it really is a verb used to describe a strategy that places the burden of proof on the credit bureaus or furnisher to verify questionable information without the requirement to provide cause, reason, or justification.
In other words, if you are unable to locate a factual error on a specific item, you can broadly request verification.
If the bureau or furnisher who is required to conduct an investigation and verify the information is accurate and complete, are unable to - or if the furnisher that reported the information fails to respond to the verification request, they are required to delete it.
Disputing means to challenge or question whether an alleged fact is true or valid.
It’s one of the most common terms you hear in credit repair!
But when do you know if you should use disputing to get your clients results?
There are tons of different disputing strategies to use to help your clients.
It really all boils down to the FCRA.
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you may dispute questionable information based on assumption or based on fact.
Either way, the burden of proof is on the bureau or furnisher to verify its accuracy and completeness or delete it!
Now that you’re clear on validation, verification, and disputing, you’re miles ahead of your clients and can use that knowledge to change a LOT of lives.
If you don’t have a Credit Repair Cloud account, sign up for a free 30 day trial at www.creditrepaircloud.com/freetrial.
And, if you want to benefit from our proven and effective methods that we teach in our Basic Disputing Certification Course, I invite you to join the Credit Hero Challenge where for a limited time, you’ll get the course for FREE!
During the Credit Hero Challenge, I’ll hold you by the hand as you launch your very own credit repair business in just a couple of weeks AND for less than it costs to bring your family to McDonald’s for dinner.
Go to CreditHeroChallenge.com and join today!
We’ve got a new one starting soon, but you’ve got to get in quick before doors close, otherwise you’ll have to wait for the next one!