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     | Monday, January 24, 2000 - 11:30 pm  I've been disputing a lot of the negative info on my credit reports recently. Two rounds with the big three in the books in the last four months. My question is when and under what circumstances do they flag you as "frivolous." I have only benn disputing four or five items with each bureau at a time. Thanks for any experiences.
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| | Tuesday, January 25, 2000 - 05:33 am I don't know - I've always been told to dispute one or two items per letter at a time, and wait for those to be resolved (your removal request approved or denied) before moving on to the next 1 or 2 items. After you have gone throught all the items, then go back and "re-dispute" the "denied" ones (again, 1, or 2 at a time) again.
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| | Tuesday, January 25, 2000 - 07:55 am I don't know all the times someone's dispute may be considered frivolous, but if you write them a dispute like this, it certainly will get considered frivolous: "I'm disputing the Citibank account on my credit and it wasn't my fault that I was late, because my wife was real sick and I had lost my job and employment wasn't covering all the bills so this really isn't my fault and I think you should fix this." I guarantee you that dispute will be labeled frivolous and they won't investigate anything.
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| | Tuesday, January 25, 2000 - 05:25 pm You're such a funny guy, Sean ... :)
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| | Wednesday, January 26, 2000 - 06:30 pm The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that credit bureaus can refuse to investigate disputes which *they perceive* as "frivolous and irrelevant." It is completely at the discretion of the bureaus (unless you could prove bad faith or negligence in court.) And they are *not* likely to disclose their exact criteria. The will probably consider: Frequency of disputes - I suggest waiting 3 - 6 months between each one. In the past (especially before the Credit Repair Organizations Act), some credit repair companies would flood the bureaus with numerous disputes simultainiously, hoping that one would slip through the 30-day time limit for a response. Repeated disputes on the same item - Trans Union specifically indicates "Date Verified" on consumer disclosure copies of credit reports. So when they pull your file in upon receiving your dispute letter, they may see this and respond with, "We will not investigate this item because it has been previously disputed and confirmed." The other bureaus may have internal notations that they don't show you. Also, if you have been rejected like this on one or two items, then they may be suspicous of *all* further disputes from you. Number of items - The more items you dispute, the more suspicious it seems. Unless your file has been accidently merged with someone else's, it seems very unlikely that ten unrelated derogatories would appear in your file by mistake. The ratio of good to bad items on the entire report - Even if you are only disputing a couple of items at a time, you will have less credibility if your report is generally full of derogatories. The tone of your letter - Is it polite, sincerely *asking* for help in the correction of a mistake, or is it angry, making demands and attacking the bureau and credit reporting in general? Does it sound like someone who isn't very smart doesn't know their rights,and can be brushed off, or someone who is intelligent enough to complain to the FTC or file a lawsuit? Is the letter *too* slick, like the consumer has done this before? Is it copied veratim from a book? There may be other factors, but only the credit bureaus know for sure. http://www.cardreport.com
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