A 609 Dispute Letter is often billed as a credit repair secret or legal loophole that forces the credit reporting agencies to remove certain negative information from your credit reports. And if you're willing, you can spend big bucks on templates for these magical dispute letters.
Generally speaking, negative information such as late or missed payments, accounts that have been sent to collection agencies, accounts not being paid as agreed, or bankruptcies stays on credit reports for approximately seven years.
How to remove negative items from your credit report yourself Get a free copy of your credit report. ... File a dispute with the credit reporting agency. ... File a dispute directly with the creditor. ... Review the claim results. ... Hire a credit repair service. ... Send a request for ?goodwill deletion? ... Work with a credit counseling agency.
If the derogatory mark is in error, you can file a dispute with the credit bureaus to get negative information removed from your credit reports. You can see all three of your credit reports for free on a weekly basis. If the derogatory marks are not errors, you'll need to wait for them to age off your credit reports.
I am requesting that this item be removed [or request another specific change to correct the information]. [List and describe any other items you are disputing.] Enclosed is documentation supporting my request: [describe the documents you're sending, for instance: my credit report, with the disputed items circled.]
The following are important details to include in the goodwill letter: The date. Your name. Your address. Your creditor's name. Your creditor's address. Your account number. The negative mark you'd like removed. Which credit bureaus the mark needs to be removed from.
If you do have valid negative items on record, here are some things that might help: Send a request for ?goodwill deletion? Writing a goodwill letter can be a viable option for people who are otherwise in good standing with creditors. ... Work with a credit counseling agency. ... Negotiate a pay-for-delete.
Paying off collection accounts can raise credit scores calculated using FICO® Score 9 and 10 and VantageScore 3.0 and 4.0, but it won't have any effect on scores produced by older FICO scoring models.