Contacting The Credit Bureaus

Your credit needs some restoration and you opted to do it yourself. If that is the case, you have to contact the credit bureaus. There are three ways to contact the bureaus that we will discuss, they are:

Phone
Snail Mail
Online

Phone- you can call the credit bureaus directly for such reasons as: denial of credit or entitled to a free credit report, placing a fraud alert, placing a security freeze or simply disputing an item. If you plan on disputing an incorrect item by phone make sure you have your most recent credit report. On the report you will find a telephone number to initiate the dispute. For any of the other reasons, you can simply go to the credit bureaus website (of the one in which you wish to contact) and get the necessary number.

Snail Mail- snail mail is an effective approach of contact and even though it is slow it does have its advantages. Credit bureaus are bombarded daily (by the millions) with letters from consumers alike. Should you choose to dispute an item by mail you will need to track the letter. For this I suggest you send it certified mail, return receipt requested.

Online - you can contact the credit bureaus on line for numerous reasons, such as the ones listed above. However should you choose to dispute an item on line, I would also opt to do it by mail. Combining the two together has resulted in some very favorable results for my clients and if by chance the credit bureau can't answer one of the disputes within the 30-day time frame it has to be removed.
A little hint (When restoring clients credit I opt to do what I call the "Trilateral Attack", it is the utilization of the three combined and it yields some amazing results.)

OK, now you know the different ways in which you can contact the credit bureaus. Now I am going to briefly show you how to effectively launch a credit cleaning campaign utilizing all three methods of contact. I use it all the time with my clients and have great success.

First I would get my most recent credit report from all three bureaus, then I would sit down and go over each of them. I would mark all information that I felt was incorrect, such as: names, AKA's, previous addresses, negative accounts and public records from the three. I would gather the bureaus contact info and call each of the bureaus individually to open a dispute and ask them to correct the information in question.

Next, over the course of a few days (maybe a week) I would sit down and formulate a well thought out and well written letter. In it, I would vent my frustration a little and let them now how upset I am about the fact that they are reporting false information on my credit report. I would be very specific in what it is that they are reporting incorrectly and what I would like them to do with it. Such as: "The following account is incorrect as it is not mine." "Please investigate the account to its entirety within the 30-days provided by law or remove it." I would gather the letters, notarize them (a little trick that works for me, but not necessary) address them and send them out to each of the credit bureaus by certified mail. Make sure you send them certified, as you might have to show proof later that you sent them.

Finally, while the letters were in transit I would hop on the computer and start an online dispute with the three credit bureaus.

Even though this might seem like a lot of work, and it is, the results you will see are well worth it. I would continue the process until I seen the results that I was looking for, but be careful not to do it too much. If you do it about 5 to 10 days after each response from the credit bureaus you should be fine. Good Luck!