When The Bureaus Don't Respond ... Do This!
Disputes cost credit bureaus money and time to process, and their goal is to avoid these costs by confusing consumers or scaring them away from going after their right to dispute items on their credit reports.
The 3 bureaus - Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - have developed specific ways to stall the credit repair process and to discourage consumers from repairing their credit.
Sadly, some of the stall tactics even include sending letters designed to make you believe they’re denying your request. In this article, I’ll walk you through the different scenarios and give you exact ways that you can stay a step ahead and get GREAT results.
What’s your first move?
When you start disputing, your very first move is always sending a basic dispute letter directly to the credit bureaus using what’s called a Round 1 Letter.
You can access this letter in your Credit Repair Cloud. Or, if you don’t have an account yet, you can get one for 30 days free at CreditRepairCloud.com!
In that Round 1 letter, you add an explanation of what’s wrong and instructions of what you want the bureau to do.After you send that letter, you need to wait and be patient because it takes some time for them to respond.
There are a few possible credit bureau replies to your first letter.
Now, when the bureaus receive your Round 1 Letter, that’s when the clock begins! At that point, the credit bureaus are required to contact the furnishers who originally reported the information.
The reality is, you should expect each of the 3 bureaus to mail you a response, but you should also expect some pushback. One or more of the credit bureaus may fail to respond -- or they may respond with a stall letter.
One thing to remember is that the bureaus only have 30 days to respond to your letter.
If they don’t respond in time, the items you disputed are supposed to get deleted.
Typically, each credit bureau will send you either a full credit report or a partial report with a cover page that summarizes any changes they’ve made. Generally, these are easy to read and understand. The responses are important, because they let you know whether or not the disputed information was modified or removed, but they also give you a good sense of what your next step should be.
So, what do you do next?
Your next move always depends on the type of response you got.
The response could be one of 3 things:
A few of the most common stall letters are:
For all of these tactics, The key is PERSISTENCE.
Remember, when faced with such discouraging responses like this, most people just give up. But that’s the whole point of their stall tactics, and that’s why they do this. They want you to just walk away, because it saves them money.
In fact, you need to always expect these responses at some point during the process. Don’t be discouraged.
Now, when you’re faced with a stall tactic, the key is to know all your options and use them to apply pressure.
Now, It’s true that many of the responses you receive will be designed to discourage you, but on the flip side, you will also be surprised at how often the bureaus do delete items. Sometimes, the most difficult items fall off when you least expect it!
Depending on their response, you may need to follow up several times, or you may want to request a reinvestigation with the bureaus if they don’t respond appropriately, or if they respond with a stall tactic, you may need to demand the method of verification, or you may need to send a warning.
If one of the credit bureaus fails to respond to a dispute you sent, it’s ok. You have options!
In that case, you always want to follow up by using the “No Response” letter template. This will usually get their attention. It’s right in your Credit Repair Cloud.
When Do You Send A Warning Shot?
So, at this point, you have already sent a Round 1 letter, and depending on the results you got back, you have either sent a “No response” letter or a “Reinvestigation” letter.
When you get the next round of results, just like always, inspect them. If you got a bunch of deletions – that’s great!
But, if that’s not the case, and the credit bureaus are still ignoring you, or responding inappropriately, and still stalling, it's time to send what I call a “warning shot.”
The bureau warning letter is a bit more aggressive, because it makes it very clear that you mean business! So, if that's the case, go ahead and send a warning letter from your Credit Repair Cloud account to each bureau that is giving you the run-around.
Remember, every cycle is going to be different. Each credit bureau maintains their own records, and they each have different procedures, so you will often see items removed on one bureau, but not the next. It can become complicated keeping track of all of the results. But if you’re already using Credit Repair Cloud, you don’t need to worry about this. The system makes it super easy to keep track of everything.
So that’s all there is to it!
Those are my proven tactics for when the bureaus give you the run-around.
And, if you want to get certified in disputing and discover how to earn extra income repairing credit for others, I invite you to join our free 5-day “Start Repairing Credit” Challenge.
It’s an amazing program. Once you learn how to repair your credit, all you have to do is repeat the process for others - AND get paid!
We’re starting again soon, so SIGN UP NOW at startrepairingcredit.com.