The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a federal law, allows you to delete items from your credit reports for two main reasons. Most items can only be reported for seven years and must be pulled off your report after that time. Items with mistakes must be deleted if you call the problem to the credit bureau's attention and it cannot get verification from the creditor.
Step 1
Order your free yearly credit reports from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion through annualcreditreport.com. Make a list of items that fall under the criteria for deletion. Your list should include anything older than seven years and any entries that have some sort of mistake. Use copies of your credit reports so you can circle the items as you create your list, and note the exact reason that each item should be deleted.
Step 2
Write a letter to each credit bureau based. Specify the items in question and why they do not belong on your report. Ask for the outdated entries to be deleted immediately, and tell the bureau you expect it to investigate the mistakes and delete them per the requirements of the FCRA if they cannot be confirmed within 30 days.
Step 3
Include copies of checks, contracts, billing statements or anything else that shows the items in question contain errors. The Federal Trade Commission warns against sending original paperwork because the credit bureaus do not return what you send them. Put your copies and letters in a separate envelope for each of the three credit bureaus.
Step 4
Mail out the envelopes as certified and with a request for a return receipt. The FTC explains that this gives you proof of the date each bureau received its envelope. They have 30 days from that date to investigate your list of disputed information, explains credit.com. The items must be deleted if they do not get proof from the creditors by the end of that period.
Step 5
Ask the original creditor to delete the item from your credit reports if the credit bureaus claim to have validated it but you still believe it is still incorrect, advises credit.com. The information will drop off your reports if the creditor agrees to stop reporting it to the bureaus.
Tips and Warnings
- The FCRA does not make the credit bureaus deal with frivolous disputes, but they do have to look into anything that does contain some type of mistake, creditreport.com advises. It might be as simple as a misspelling or transposed numbers.
- Some items can never be deleted from your credit reports, no matter how old they are, unless they are settled. Such items include student loans, tax liens and other government debts, according to cardreport.com.
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