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Where the letters go

Who gets written to, and why

A dispute is not one letter to one place. Depending on what is wrong there are up to five people worth writing to, and two of them are regulators you can write to yourself for nothing.

Every one of these is something you can do without hiring anybody. The addresses are public.

  1. W-CRA

    The three nationwide bureaus

    Where the file lives

    They hold the report, so they get the dispute. An item on one report and not another is disputed with the one reporting it, which is why you want all three before you start.

  2. W-FUR

    The company that reported it

    Where the information came from

    Writing to them directly as well is often what moves it, because they are the ones the bureau will ask. Their obligation to investigate is real and separate.

  3. W-COL

    A collection agency

    When a debt has been sold on

    A different law applies. Within thirty days of their first contact you can demand validation, and until they provide it they are supposed to stop collecting.

  4. W-CFPB

    The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

    When it is stuck

    A federal complaint is free, you can file it yourself, and companies have to respond. We will tell you when we think it is time, including when that is instead of paying us.

  5. W-AG

    Your state attorney general

    When somebody has broken the rules

    Most states regulate credit repair on top of the federal rules. If a company took money up front, this is where that gets reported.

  6. W-COURT

    Nowhere, sometimes

    When a lawyer is the answer

    Identity theft with accounts opened in your name, or a bureau that has ignored a proper dispute twice, is a lawyer’s job and not ours. We will say so and we will not bill you for finding out.

What is actually in a dispute letter

It is shorter than people expect. The thing that makes it work is not length, it is being specific about one item, because a letter that disputes everything at once can be dismissed as frivolous under FCRA 611(a)(3).

  1. Who you are. Name, current address, and enough to identify the file. Not your full Social Security number in the body of the letter.
  2. Which item. One. Named, with the account number as it appears on the report.
  3. What is wrong with it. The specific fact. Not "this is inaccurate", but "this account was opened in March 2023 and I did not live in this state until August 2024".
  4. What the truth is. And what you are asking them to do about it: delete, or correct to a stated value.
  5. What proves it. Copies, never originals. A lease, a statement, a letter from the lender.
  6. The request. That they reinvestigate under FCRA 611 and send you the written result.

Then it goes in the post with tracking, and the date it arrives is the date the thirty days starts from. That receipt is the most valuable piece of paper in the whole process.

You can send every letter on this page yourself. Nothing here requires a company, and complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are free.The whole method is written out here.