Credit Dispute Letters Bad Credit Repair

An overview and sample of how to draft a letter to dispute credit card charges.

No matter if you agree with the concept or not, the fact is that if an item appears on your credit or charge card statement, the merchant and credit card company view the items on that bill as “their money” from the moment it’s billed. They have the motivation to react defensively to any attempts to get that money back from them, unless there is a solid logical reason to do so. Further, because of the world we live in today, most merchant and credit companies face a daily assault from scammers and tricksters making them even more defensive and experienced than you. That solid logical reason they need to remove a charge may be your only chance at success in getting disputed charges removed.

Step 1: Organize all your data. Make three copies of the credit card statement that has the disputed item(s) listed. One copy will be sent to the credit card company (never send the original), and the other two are for your disputes file and for corresponding with the merchant during the follow-up phase. Do the same with any documentation that applies to the item in question, like sales receipts, returned items receipts, proof of identity not that of billed, copy of identity fraud alert if it applies, etc.

Step 2: Organize your dispute argument. In an orderly and logical manner, outline why you feel the charge is in error. For example, the item was never ordered or received, the billing information is from another individual not you, the item was returned for legitimate credit or charge back not reflected, etc. Be clear and be sure your argument is legit. Your chances are increased the more accurate and concise you are, and you risk legal troubles if you are fraudulent in your claim of dispute. Many legitimate merchants and charge companies share valuable information about what is a legitimate dispute in their terms and conditions pages, so be sure to check these out as well.

Step 3: Identify exactly as possible (through a phone call if needed) who exactly will be your target of this letter. This may give some insight to influence or leverage in your favor, and insight how to tone or craft your argument or dispute. For instance, is the person or department receiving dozens of these mailings per day, or is this a merchant charge account where the proprietor or credit manger can handle each letter individually as a matter of good business practice.

Step 4: Using the data in Step 2 and Step 3 above as a guide, create a rough draft of your initial dispute letter. Spell checking and grammar are second considerations here, since they will be handled in the final draft.

Step 5: After taking a break from the process for a day or night or two, look at all three above in sequence and think about how you could improve your strategy, argument points, or final draft argument tone and style. Remember, this is an initial contact that does not call for quoting the laws, name calling, personal attacks or threats of action, or anything of the sort. Cool headed, correctly crafted and displayed logic should lead the recipient to no other decision than to agree with your argument. If you’re not there yet, you need to go back to Step 1 to start over till you get it right. This is your best chance for success, if not your only chance.

Step 6: Using the final draft from Step 5 and the copies from Step 2, package your letter and supporting documents together, and send them to the appropriate address, with some form of tracking like certified return receipt. It’s always a good idea to match this step to the level of the charge amount and your target as well. Remember, you are negotiating and presenting at this stage, not picking a fight or a legal battle. There may or may not be a need for legal stuff later. For now you are documenting and tracking each step and little more, but certainly not less.

Give it a shot. If your reasons are legit, the item(s) may be adjusted. But don’t try to refuse to pay the rest of your bill until resolved. You may even find yourself in a situation where a reversal is not possible, or that you may have to pay and recover later to preserve your account standing. And, the above steps may not work. Now you can think about your possible legal standing and remedies. So thats how you fix your credit with a credit dispute letter.

A credit repair letter is also referred to as a dispute letter. This is a how you remove a negative mark on your credit report with the credit bureaus.

By sending this letter you are telling the credit bureau that the listing is incorrect and should be removed. Upon receipt of this letter the bureaus will conduct an investigation into the listing. Be aware that a separate letter must be sent to each credit bureau.

In your letter you must include the disputed item, the reason for the dispute, your name and address. Common reasons for a dispute are; account is paid in full, not your account, information wrong, item out of date and more.

Congress passed the Fair Credit Reporting Act to help protect you from the credit bureaus. This law forces the bureaus to investigate a dispute and remove any inaccurate or unverifiable listing from your credit report. Consumers had no method of removing a negative item from their credit before this law.

The brick wall that many people face is to get the credit bureau to deem your letter a “valid” dispute. This is because it will only cost the bureaus potential profits to conduct investigations.

Thus the credit bureaus will avoid conducting an investigation and do this through stall tactics. These stall tactics are in place to frustrate you and force you into giving up on the dispute process. It is common for bureaus to respond to a dispute letter with another letter that requests more information about the listing.

Also you should know that under no circumstances should you ever submit a 100 word statement on your credit report. This is a place where you can provide a brief statement next to a negative mark so thats why a credit dispute letter makes sense.

In the past this space was where you could provide the details and reason for what happened. However today if you submit this statement you are only acknowledging your guilt to the credit bureaus.

If you do this it will be next to impossible to ever remove this mark from your credit report. The credit bureaus will deem any future dispute letter challenging that mark as frivolous.

With patience and some organization you can have negative items removed from your credit report. However it is in your interest to consider a credit repair service if you have multiple negative marks on your reports.