Understanding Bureau Responses to Dispute Letters

An updated credit report from the credit bureau. Whenever an investigation is completed and an item is removed, the bureaus may send an updated status to you.

When the credit bureau successfully completes an investigation, and the tradeline is deemed not entirely accurate, the negative item should be removed from the credit report and you may be sent an updated copy. This does not mean you must stop investigating other questionable items or stop monitoring your credit. This just means you have seen what hundreds of thousands of other people have seen - that repairing your credit is possible and happens every day. Your results may vary.

We encourage you to continue to repair your credit, and to improve your credit using whatever means possible.

Disclaimer: While the steps provided are typical responses from the credit bureaus, they do not constitute legal advice. If you need additional support in understanding a response from a credit bureau, please consult with an attorney.

A bureau letter rejecting or stalling the investigation. A rejection letter can seem like the end, but credit bureaus use these stall tactics to thwart people from using their rights to investigate their credit.

Sometimes the credit bureaus simply pass along information about your investigation that simply is there to inform you. Don't panic. Just identify these letters and then let credit bureaus continue to work on your investigation.

Bureau Stall Letters Examples

A letter requesting more information. Most times the bureaus are only requesting information like account numbers or personal information to help them investigate your letter.

Identify the letter and follow the suggested action by following the link below.

Bureau Stall Letters Examples

Disclaimer: While the steps provided are typical responses from the credit bureaus, they do not constitute legal advice. If you need additional support in understanding a response from a credit bureau, please consult with an attorney.

No response at all. If after 60 days you haven't received any kind of response at all, then you've fallen victim to the massive bureaucracy of the credit bureau.

Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is resend a follow-up dispute letter.

Find some examples on our dispute letter sample page.

Disclaimer: While the steps provided are typical responses from the credit bureaus, they do not constitute legal advice. If you need additional support in understanding a response from a credit bureau, please consult with an attorney.

How to follow up with the bureaus. If you receive disappointing results, remember that it took you some time to create your bad credit, and it will take time to restore your good credit.

Whatever your response, restoring your credit is a cycle.

Collect your results, mark your calendar, and wait for your next acceptable investigation date. Don't forget to allow at least sixty days between letters.

Compare Reports

The easiest way to analyze the results of a successful challenge is to compare the newly investigated report with the previous report. You may simply go down the list of questionable tradelines and note the absences of negative listing or the listings that were negative, but have become positive.

You may also determine improvements by comparing information within the same credit report. Equifax and Transunion usually provide a list of tradelines challenged and whether or not the listings were changed, deleted, or verified as accurate.

If you ordered your credit reports online, you can order another report or simply compare your original with the updated report you just received. Remember, many online credit reports merge all three credit reports. You'll have to compare Experian with Experian items, Equifax with Equifax and so forth.

Determine the reason

As you receive the results of the credit bureau investigation, you will note that each investigated listing may have been handled in one of these fashions:

The listing was not investigated. Perhaps your request was not sufficiently clear, or perhaps the credit bureau simply chose to ignore your letter. In either case you will need to investigate the listing again in your next letter.

The listing was investigated but verified as accurate. The creditor may have responded to the credit bureau's request for reverification.

The questionable listing was investigated as to the correctness of the information within the listing, such as late pay notations, and the listing was found to be inaccurate or unverifiable. In this case, the negative listing may be removed or may now show up as a positive listing.

This may be the best possible outcome because you may now enjoy more good credit once your report is cleared.

The listing was investigated as to whether or not the listing belongs to you, and the listing was found to be inaccurate or unverifiable. In this case, the negative listing will disappear from the credit report altogether.

The investigated listing was deleted or temporarily reported as positive, but the negative listing was later verified and relisted on the credit report. If a listing is verified by the creditor after the thirty day investigation period, the credit bureau can replace the listing on the credit report.

Disclaimer: This does not constitute legal advice. Please modify the letters for your particular circumstances. Use these only a guide. Your results may vary. If you need additional assistance, please consult with an attorney.