How Disputes Affect Your Credit Score

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When Can I Dispute Credit Report Information?

Inaccuracies on credit reports are uncommon but can happen. Regularly checking your credit reports with the three national consumer credit bureaus (Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax) is a good practice. You can check your Experian credit report for free anytime, and you can also get a free report from each of the credit bureaus. If you find any incorrect information or suspect fraud or identity theft, consider filing a dispute with the relevant bureau.

Sometimes, additional action may be necessary. For instance, an unfamiliar loan or credit card account could indicate credit fraud. Before raising alarms, verify that the entry isn’t using a parent company name, initials, or acronym for an account you recognize. For example, a retail credit card might appear under the name of the company’s lending partner or the bank managing its credit cards.

The process for filing disputes may vary slightly for each credit bureau. Below, we’ll discuss Experian credit disputes.

Does Filing a Dispute Hurt Your Credit?

Filing a dispute does not impact your credit scores directly. However, changes made to your credit report as a result of a dispute can affect your scores. The nature of the change—whether your score goes up, down, or remains the same—depends on what you are disputing and the outcome of the dispute.

Disputing personal information used mainly to confirm your identity, such as an incorrect name or an address where you never lived, has no bearing on your credit scores because that information is not used to calculate a credit score.

Revisions to your payment history, however, can impact your credit scores. For example, late payments negatively affect credit scores. If a late payment is mistakenly reported and corrected through a dispute, your credit scores will likely improve.

Consider the timing of your dispute if you plan to apply for new credit soon. It’s better to wait until after the dispute is resolved to apply, ensuring your credit report reflects updated information.

Disputes typically take less than 30 days and may require verification with the lender or entity that provided the information to Experian. After your dispute is completed, you can log in to your Experian account to see the outcome and how it affected your FICO® Score from Experian, if at all.

Possible Outcomes of Disputes

The results of a dispute depend on the nature of the information in question. Outcome descriptions that may appear on your Experian credit report or in your Experian account notifications once the dispute is completed include:

Disputes Related to Your Personal Information

Filing a dispute related to your personal identifying information, such as your name, address, Social Security number, and employers, can generate the following outcome notations:

• Added: This item was added to your credit report.
• Updated: The information you disputed has been revised on your credit report.
• Deleted: The item was removed from your credit report.
• Remains: The lender or source of the information has certified that the information is accurate, so the item has not changed.

Disputes Related to Accounts, Inquiries, or Bankruptcy

The following notations may appear in your credit report and Experian account in connection with disputes around credit accounts, including your payment history, accounts in collection, foreclosures, inquiries made in response to credit applications, or bankruptcy:

• Updated: This can mean either the information you disputed has been revised or verified as accurate by an information furnisher and left as is, but other information on your account, unrelated to your dispute, has been updated.
• Deleted: The item was removed from your credit report.
• Processed: The item was updated or deleted from your credit report.
• Remains: The company reporting the information has certified to Experian that the information is accurate, so the item has not changed.

How Long Will Information Stay on My Credit Report?

Different credit report entries last for different amounts of time. Most entries that can negatively affect your credit scores, such as late or missed payments, foreclosures, and accounts placed in collections, will remain for seven years. Chapter 13 personal bankruptcies also stay for seven years, while Chapter 7 bankruptcies remain for 10 years from the date you file for protection from the bankruptcy court. Credit inquiries typically stay on your credit report for 24 months. Open accounts with positive credit history remain indefinitely, while accounts closed in good standing will remain for 10 years.

What if I Disagree With the Outcome of My Dispute?

If you dispute an entry on your credit report and the data furnisher confirms the information as accurate, Experian will inform you, and the item will remain unchanged. Experian may update or remove an item in dispute if the data furnisher doesn’t answer a verification request within the 30-day time frame specified by federal law. However, if the furnisher verifies the information later, it may be re-added to your credit history.

If you disagree with the outcome of a dispute, your options include:

• Reach out to the lender: Contact your lender or other data furnisher to seek correction of discrepancies in their records.
• Re-file a dispute with the credit bureau: Include additional evidence of the inaccuracy. Resubmitting only the information provided with your original dispute is unlikely to bring a different outcome.
• Add a statement of dispute to your credit report: This note appears when anyone checks your credit, indicating that you disagree with an entry in your credit report. To add a statement of dispute to your Experian credit report, go to the Dispute Center, choose an item you’ve disputed, and select Add a Statement.

The Bottom Line

Disputing inaccurate credit report information is everyone’s right. Exercising that option has no effect on credit scores, but changes made to your credit report because of disputes can impact your scores. Check your free Experian credit report regularly to ensure its accuracy, and if you spot any issues, the Experian Dispute Center is the quickest, easiest way to dispute information.

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