What a credit file dispute sets in motion

Thirty days, free of charge

The trigger is a consumer disputing the completeness or accuracy of an item in the file and notifying the agency directly, or indirectly through a reseller.

The agency then has to conduct a reasonable reinvestigation, free of charge, to determine whether the disputed information is inaccurate, and record the current status of the information or delete the item, before the end of the thirty-day period beginning on the date it receives the notice.

That period may be extended by not more than fifteen additional days if the agency receives information from the consumer during the thirty days that is relevant to the reinvestigation.

The extension is unavailable in three situations: where, during the thirty days, the information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete, or the agency determines it cannot be verified.

One further obligation applies throughout. In conducting the reinvestigation the agency has to review and consider all relevant information submitted by the consumer within that period.

The furnisher is pulled in within five business days

The agency does not investigate alone, and the mechanism that brings in the other side has its own short clock.

Before the expiration of the five-business-day period beginning on the date the agency receives notice of a dispute, it has to notify any person who provided any item of the disputed information, at the address and in the manner established with that person. The notice has to include all relevant information regarding the dispute that the agency received from the consumer or reseller.

Relevant information the agency receives after that five-day window but before the end of the reinvestigation period has to be provided to the furnisher promptly.

On receiving that notice, the furnisher acquires five duties. It has to conduct an investigation with respect to the disputed information. It has to review all relevant information the agency provided. It has to report the results of the investigation to the agency.

If the investigation finds the information is incomplete or inaccurate, it has to report those results to all other nationwide consumer reporting agencies to which it furnished the information. And where an item is found inaccurate or incomplete, or cannot be verified, it has to promptly modify it, delete it, or permanently block its reporting, for reporting purposes.

The furnisher's deadline is tied to the agency's. It has to complete all investigations, reviews and reports before the expiration of the period within which the agency has to complete its own actions.

What happens to an item that fails

The outcome side of the procedure is specific about deletion and about what has to happen before anything comes back.

If, after the reinvestigation, an item is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or cannot be verified, the agency has to promptly delete it from the file or modify it as appropriate based on the results, and promptly notify the furnisher that it has been modified or deleted.

Reinsertion is then conditional. Information deleted in that way may not be reinserted unless the person who furnishes it certifies that the information is complete and accurate.

If deleted information is reinserted, the agency has to notify the consumer in writing not later than five business days after the reinsertion, and within the same period provide a statement that the information has been reinserted, the business name, address and telephone number of any furnisher contacted in connection with the reinsertion where reasonably available, and a notice of the right to add a statement to the file disputing the accuracy or completeness of the information.

The agency also has to maintain reasonable procedures designed to prevent the reappearance in a file, and in reports, of information deleted under this provision, other than information reinserted with the required certification.

The design is worth noticing. Deletion is not final by default; it is final unless someone certifies, and the certification is what has to happen before an item can return.

The notices the consumer is owed

The agency has to report back, and the statute specifies both the deadline and the contents.

Written notice of the results has to reach the consumer not later than five business days after the reinvestigation is completed, by mail or, if the consumer authorised it, by other means available to the agency.

As part of or in addition to that notice, and before the five days expire, the agency has to provide a statement that the reinvestigation is completed; a consumer report based on the file as revised by the reinvestigation; a notice that on request a description of the procedure used to determine accuracy and completeness will be provided, including the business name, address and, where reasonably available, telephone number of any furnisher contacted; a notice of the right to add a statement to the file disputing accuracy or completeness; and a notice of the right to request that the agency send notifications of a deletion or dispute statement to earlier recipients.

Where the consumer asks for the description of the procedure, the agency has to provide it not later than fifteen days after receiving the request.

An expedited route exists. Where the dispute is resolved by deleting the disputed information not later than three business days after the agency receives the notice, the agency is relieved of the furnisher-notification, results-notice and procedure-description requirements, provided it gives prompt notice of the deletion by telephone, includes a statement of the right to request notifications to earlier recipients, and provides written confirmation of the deletion with a revised consumer report not later than five business days after making the deletion.

When the dispute is not resolved, and who else can be told

The statute does not assume every dispute succeeds, and it provides for the alternative.

If the reinvestigation does not resolve the dispute, the consumer may file a brief statement setting out the nature of the dispute. The agency may limit such statements to not more than one hundred words if it provides the consumer with assistance in writing a clear summary.

Whenever such a statement is filed, then unless there are reasonable grounds to believe it is frivolous or irrelevant, the agency has to clearly note in any subsequent report containing the information in question that it is disputed by the consumer, and provide either the statement or a clear and accurate codification or summary of it.

Following any deletion of information found inaccurate or no longer verifiable, or any notation as to disputed information, the agency has to furnish notification of the deletion or the statement, at the consumer's request, to any person the consumer specifically designates who received a report containing that information: within the preceding two years for employment purposes, or within the preceding six months for any other purpose.

The agency may also terminate a reinvestigation if it reasonably determines the dispute is frivolous or irrelevant, including because the consumer failed to provide sufficient information to investigate. It then has to notify the consumer within five business days, giving the reasons and identifying any information required to investigate, which may take the form of a standardised description.

None of this is the debt collection dispute procedure. That runs under a different statute, is triggered by a written dispute to a collector inside a defined validation period, and produces a pause in collection rather than a reinvestigation of a file. The two are separate procedures with separate consequences, and this site covers the other one in its own article.

Sources

Each document below is named as it names itself, with the date printed on that document rather than the day it was read.

1. United States Code Title 15, Section 1681i, Procedure in case of disputed accuracy — read at subsection (a), paragraphs (1) through (8), including the thirty-day reinvestigation and its extension, the five-business-day furnisher notification, the frivolous or irrelevant determination, the treatment of inaccurate or unverifiable information and the reinsertion certification, the notice of results and its contents, the fifteen-day procedure description and expedited dispute resolution; and subsections (b), (c) and (d) on the statement of dispute, its notation in later reports and notification of deletion to earlier recipients, 2024 Main Edition — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, January 2025
2. United States Code Title 15, Section 1681s-2, Responsibilities of furnishers of information to consumer reporting agencies — read at subsection (b), Duties of furnishers of information upon notice of dispute, paragraphs (1) and (2), including the five duties and the deadline tied to the agency's reinvestigation period, 2024 Main Edition — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives, January 2025