How strongly worded should a CRA dispute letter be?

[NASCAR_Devil]

I'm on vacation this week and finally have the time to do all my letter writing. Question: How strongly should I word the letters to the CRA's? I don't particularly want it to be too harsh but will if need be. Here's what I initially wrote. Any feedback?

Dear Sir or Madame,

Recently I received a copy of my credit report from Transunion. I felt it necessary to pull my report because I was recently turned down when applying for a mortgage. After reviewing it, I have discovered several inaccuracies that I would like addressed. I have also enclosed the relevant pages of a copy of my report with the items hi-lighted.

[brokeinok]

That's not strongly worded at all!

Strongly worded = hey you dummies, you've screwed up my CR and I'm sick and tired of it. If you don't fix it now I'm sending Vinny and the boys to your office.

[brokeinok]

I've been success starting mine in much the way you did and then simply listing the disputes:

Problem #1

Account #XXXXX

Company Name

Not Mine

Problem #2

Account #XXXX

Company Name

I was never late on payments

Etc....

GOOD LUCK!!!

[KimPossible]

I just recently sent my letter and that is basically the verbiage I used. I had SO much incorrect personal information on my reports that I had to send a letter with copies of DL, SSN and utility bill for correction but if I could have, I would have just called for my first round of disputes.

I think along the same lines as Amerikaner83 in the fact that I'm not interested in suing the CRA. I sent the letter certified just have an accurate date record for myself but not CMRRR. If ends up that I have to go several rounds then I may use stronger language. I'll probably type the letters and send them CMRRR. I just haven't gotten to that point yet.

[KimPossible]

Yes, I attached all three documents to all three disputes.

The reason I did it was for consistency, for myself. EQ stated that if I wanted to dispute my name and DOB then I had to attach a DL. If was disputing my address then I could attach a DL or utility bill. To dispute my SSN I had to attach my SSN card. Believe or not, on EQ, I WAS disputing all of those items. So, I just made 3 copies of everything and sent it along to all of them.

I recently had an attempted ID theft by a family member that has the same first and last name as me. While she did not use my SSN, as best I can tell, some of her identifying information ended up on all three of my reports in some minor form or fashion. None of it is enough to press any kind of charges but it was enough to jack things up for me.

[nascar]

It's a business letter. You're asking the CRA to do what they would do in the normal course of business. This is your first request - be professional.

[merkurfan]

My last dispute was a rather strong ITS after I got a PI from TU. Basically it was a "are you sure you want to go down this road?" with 2 pages of my complaint attached.

Their reply

"deleted"

I don't really have anything left to dispute so this was a while ago.

[KimPossible]

I agree it should be professional. I think that if you're an adult you should handle all business communication as such. Although I am a professional in my occupation, I do not use strong language to communicate my points. It has been my life experience that you can catch a lot more flies with sugar than vinegar.

I would stray away from most of the form letters. Using a form letter, which by the way the CRAs, CAs and OCs have all seen over and over, does not make the letter personal and they are not tailored to your situation. In addition, spouting off, section this, that and the other in your initial communication, I think, makes letter seem like it's more from a credit repair company than personal.

Now granted, I am new to this board. This is just my opinion. But, I formed this opinion by reading the book, this board and seeing what worked for others then I coupled that with what would be natural for me to do. I would suggest that since you have the time, take the first day or two to do nothing but read this board. Read the posts from people who've had the greatest success and then form your decision for yourself.

[Fizzle1979]

My two cents. Write one letter for each dispute. It will help keep things in order. Of course there is a cost associated with that to keep it organized. A little over $5 per CMRRR letter gets expensive. But here is what I did and it kinda sorta worked but not in all cases. Lets say you have three collections listed on all three of your CR's.

Collection #1

Collection #2

Collection #3

I sent EQ a dispute for Collection #1.

I sent EX a dispute for Collection #2.

I sent TU a dispute for Collection #3.

Sometimes, when the creditor went to verify the information for collection #1 with EQ and they deleted it from EQ and it magically fell of EX &TU. Same thing for #2 & #3. You get the idea. My theory is that they just removed it from the other two CRA's database without having a dispute for the account.

Then after 30 days, if I still had a collections, I wrote the remaining CRA's and disputed the accounts with them.

[downwithdogs]

Just a tip incase you haven't tried. You can CMRR electronically now knocking the price down to approx $3 and less hassle with the green card. I use it all the time with no problems - at first I was hesitant.

[Fizzle1979]

I see some confliciting information. Should I send the letters to the CRA's CMRRR , certified only or regular mail?

Different people have opinions on this ... here is mine.

I sent my CRA disputes via CMRRR non electronic option. Because I wanted to be able to say ok EX employee, it's been 30 days since you signed for my letter on 11/12/07 what are the results of this investigation. If they did not have results, then I demanded they delete the tradeline.

Since you live in TX, which means your EQ report is serviced by CSC, they are SLOW with their dispute results. I had some of mine take over 55 days before I got results.

I would send your DL and SS card. If you are disputing old addresses, names, etc I would not send those via CMRRR or just send them with your regular collections disputes.

[KimPossible]

Different people have opinions on this ... here is mine.

I would have to say that this is the beauty of this site and why I spent so much time reading everyone else's opinion. As I mentioned earlier, reading the posts from people as successful as Fizzle and the fact that he is from Texas as we are, is a great help. Thanks Fizzle!

[Fizzle1979]

I would have to say that this is the beauty of this site and why I spent so much time reading everyone else's opinion. As I mentioned earlier, reading the posts from people as successful as Fizzle and the fact that he is from Texas as we are, is a great help. Thanks Fizzle!

I tend to explains things a little more in detail for my fellow Texans. I just wish there was a search function on here, that allowed me to find posts only by Texans.

My credit is clean as a whistle now, so the only joy I get is helping others. No one inspired me more than SecretAgentWoman aka SAW.

[Fizzle1979]

Wonder if the admins would consider a forum by state or region. Might make it to big to manage but.....

I think that would be too much. But maybe something where when we are looking at posts in the Collections section, the state name would be by the posters name.

But you can't make everyone happy.

[nascar]

Wonder if the admins would consider a forum by state or region. Might make it to big to manage but.....

Here's an example of what you're talking about. I can't say much for the content, but the structure seems close to what you're describing. If you ask Kristy real nice .... uh, prob'ly not.

Hey Kristy !