You have the right to dispute errors on your credit report. Fixing an error generally means contacting both the credit reporting company and the company that provided the information.
If you suspect that the error on your report is a result of identity theft, visit IdentityTheft.gov
, the federal government’s one-stop resource to help you report and recover from identity theft.
If you identify an error on your credit report, you should start by disputing that information with the credit reporting company (Experian, Equifax, and/or Transunion). You should explain in writing what you think is wrong, why, and include copies of documents that support your dispute. You can also use our instructions
If you mail a dispute, your dispute letter should include:
You can choose to send your dispute letter by certified mail and ask for a return receipt, so that you have a record that your letter was received.
You can contact the nationwide credit reporting companies online, by mail, or by phone:
Mail the dispute form with your letter to:
Equifax Information Services LLC
P.O. Box 740241
Atlanta, GA 30374
By phone: Call the phone number shown on your credit report or call (866) 349-5191
By mail: Use the address provided on your credit report or mail your letter to:
Experian
P.O. Box 4500
Allen, TX 75013
By phone: Call the phone number shown on your credit report or call (888) 397-3742
Mail the dispute form with your letter to:
TransUnion Consumer Solutions
P.O. Box 2000
Chester, PA 19016-2000
By phone: (800) 916-8800, Monday – Friday 8 a.m. 11 p.m. ET, Saturday and Sunday 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET.
Keep copies of your dispute letter and the documents you send with it.
Credit reporting companies gather information about you from other companies (called furnishers). Examples of furnishers include your bank, your landlord, and your credit card company. To dispute the information a company provided to the credit reporting company, you can use our sample letter
The credit reporting company you sent the dispute letter to must investigate your dispute, forward copies of relevant documents to the company that provided the information about you, and report the results back to you.
A credit reporting company is not required to take action about disputes that are frivolous. The company must send you a notice explaining that it has decided the dispute is frivolous, and the notice must be sent within five business days after it made the decision.
After correcting information about you, the information furnisher is responsible for notifying all the credit reporting companies about the corrected information. Then, the credit reporting companies update your credit reports.
The information furnisher might determine the information about you is accurate and should not be updated or removed. In that case, you can contact the credit reporting companies again and ask them to include a statement explaining the dispute in your credit reports. The statement is then added to your file and provided to whomever requests your credit report in future.
If you have a problem with your credit report, you can also submit a complaint with the CFPB.