It’s certainly on the list of the most commonly asked questions about credit report investigations. Unfortunately, that simple question has a complicated answer. Your credit file dispute can take as little as a few days to be completed and as long as “never” to complete. Read on..
- A few days – If you work in mortgage lending you may be familiar with “rapid rescoring.” Rapid rescoring, which isn’t really an accurate representation, is when your mortgage lender can work with his or her mortgage credit reporting company and get items updated or corrected at Equifax, Experian, TransUnion in a couple of days.
- A few weeks – According to the credit reporting industry most disputes are resolved in a couple of weeks. The process is now heavily automated with the use of e-Oscar and now it’s as simple as checking a system website daily for disputes that need to be addressed.
- Up to 30 days – This is the most common answer to the question. Section 611 of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives the credit reporting agencies 30 days to complete their investigation. 30 days starts from the day they received the dispute.
- Up to 45 days – If you provide additional information during the 30 day investigation then the credit reporting agencies have an additional 15 days to complete their investigation.
- Never – The credit reporting agencies can end an investigation if they determine that the dispute is frivolous or irrelevant. And, if you never challenge a credit file entry as being incorrect the credit bureaus don’t ever have to change it.
Credit Reporting Expert Witness, John Ulzheimer, is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. John is twice FCRA certified by the credit industry’s trade association. He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert witness who actually comes from the credit industry and has worked for a credit bureau and a credit score developer.