Numerous studies show that 1 out of 4 consumer credit reports contain errors that will result in the consumer being declined for credit. While this is a serious fact, what is more serious is what REALLY happens when these consumers actually dispute these errors on their report with the Credit Bureaus. Many "Consumer Protection" and "Consumer Rights" groups try to make consumers feel confident by explaining that any errors on their credit report have to be..."Investigated" by the credit bureaus and... any information which the bureaus are UNABLE to verify within 30 days, must be DELETED from the consumers report. All that is required to make this happen is the consumer must mail a letter (or go online) in order to "initiate" the investigation process. Sounds great... because you've probably heard it before. When most Americans hear the word..."INVESTIGATION" in regards to an item on their credit report they're challenging, they usually picture some variation of the following three step process:
STEP ONE: An employee at the Credit Bureau receives their dispute and personally reviews it. During this review they gather information and documents in regards to the disputed account by contacting the original creditor or collection agency etc. (a.k.a. the Data "Furnisher").
STEP TWO: The Credit Bureau Employee then reviews copies of original documents like the Credit Application, Billing Statements, Billing and Payment Statements or notes in the account looking for any errors in reporting. If anything is in question they will request proof from the "Data Furnisher."
STEP THREE: Once a "complete and thorough" investigation has been completed, the Credit Bureau Employee will then update the consumers account according to the results of the investigation.
Now, let's talk about how it REALLY works. FIRST: A dispute letter is created by either...You, An Attorney or A Credit Repair Company. And it's then mailed to the Credit Bureaus. It doesn't really matter who mails the letter because... SECOND: When the letter is received by the Credit Bureau it's electronically scanned with "Optical Character Recognition" and... matched against a DATABASE of..."Boiler Plate" Dispute Letters commonly used by Credit Repair Companies or found in Software Programs and Credit Repair Books. If your letter "matches" one of these letters in their database your dispute will most likely be...
a.)Flagged as FRIVOLOUS
b.)Marked as SUSPICIOUS, or
c.)Completely IGNORED
If you've used a Credit Repair Company or Dispute Letters out of Credit Repair Books you might have firsthand experience with this. THIRD: No matter who writes your dispute letter or how threatening it may sound, if the SCANNED version of it does NOT match that of a "Boiler Plate" Dispute Letter used thousands of times, the scanned version will then be sent electronically overseas for processing in a country like: India, Jamaica, Philippines or Costa Rica. There, an outsource employee who doesn't even speak English as their native language will look at your scanned dispute and turn it into nothing but a TWO or THREE Digit Code. Yes, you heard that correctly. They will take your dispute (even if it has 10 pages of detailed documentation supporting your claim) and convert it into nothing but a... TWO or THREE Digit Code And, to make your blood boil even more, they do this with a highly automated system the Credit Bureaus created called e-Oscar which (get this) stands for... E-lectronic O-nline S-olution (for) C-omplete (and) A-ccurate R-eporting
The e-OSCAR system takes your dispute and usually uses a pull down "Pick List" to convert the dispute into just 1 of 26 Different Dispute Codes. Even worse, of these 26 Dispute Codes, 85% of disputes will fall under the same 5 codes. For example, according to testimony from congressional hearings, credit bureaus used the following codes in these percentages with the e-Oscar system:
31% of Disputes "NOT MINE", 21% of Disputes "ACCOUNT STATUS", 17% of Disputes "INACCURATE INFORMATION", 9% of Disputes "ACCOUNT AMOUNTS", 7% of Disputes "ACCOUNT CLOSED"
85% of Disputes fall under same 5 Codes
Once your dispute is converted to one of the "Standardized Dispute Codes" within the e-Oscar system, the code is sent to the Data Furnisher (a.k.a. the Original Creditor or Collection Agency) using a standardized form known as an "Automated Consumer Dispute Verification Form" (or ACDV for short). This request is sent to the Data Furnisher via the e-Oscar System. An ACDV merely consists of a few items of identifying information about the consumer, the Dispute Code and in some cases, additional notes. Any supporting documentation like, Account Applications, Canceled Checks, Billing Statements or Pay Off Letters or Confirmations etc. are NOT included in these electronic communications between Data Furnishers and the e-Oscar System. Your dispute is essentially converted into nothing but a "Dispute Code". In fact, there is...NO MECHANISM IN PLACE for the Credit Bureaus to send your Supporting Documents and Proof of your claim to the Data Furnishers! So, what happens when a furnisher receives an "Automated Consumer Dispute Verification" (ACDV) from the e-Oscar System? "Do they begin an "in-depth" investigation?" "If the furnisher is a Collection Agency do they contact the Original Creditor for REAL documentation on the account?" Hardly... remember, the data furnisher will never even receive nor see all the documentation in your dispute (even if you sent 60 pages of proof).
In fact, there's a new piece of technology to even further automate the e-Oscar System for Data Furnishers and it's called...BATCH INTERFACE. Data Furnishers like large banks and collection agencies can receive thousands of disputes a month. Dealing with all these disputes manually via the e-Oscar System quickly becomes A LOT OF WORK, e-Oscars solution to the problem is to send the Data Furnisher all these disputes in one large file, all at one time. This is what the BATCH INTERFACE function was created for. Now, when the data furnisher receives this large file there are several options for processing the data. One such option is something called...REPLY ALL. REPLY ALL allows the data furnisher to select a response like..."Account Verified", and apply this response to dozens or even hundreds of records in the file with a single push of a button. But if this doesn't have you fuming enough, then maybe another feature will. And, that feature is one called...AUTO POPULATE. The "Auto-Populate" function allows the data furnisher to Auto Populate responses of Automated Consumer Dispute Requests before submitting them back to the credit bureau via the e-Oscar System. Of course, we all know the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) states that all Data Furnishers MUST perform a REASONABLE INVESTIGATION. Then again, maybe it all depends on what one calls a "reasonable" investigation and how reasonable it can be when AUTOMATED. So, if you're ready to learn the Truth about the fastest way to improve your credit score so you can get...The Cash You NEED for a Business and Buy The Home You Not Only Love But would Love to LIVE IN!
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