There's a good chance you're working to obtain a mortgage right now if you've stumbled across this article. That's because when you get a mortgage you can't have disputes open on your report. Luckily having lingering disputes open on a credit report is a common occurance which makes it a super simple process to remove.

So let’s take a look at everything you need to know about what a dispute is and how you go about removing one.

 

What Is A Dispute?

When you or an attorney disputes an account on your credit report, the credit bureau adds a comment that you disputed the accuracy of that specific account. It essentially lets all creditors know that the information on that account might not be accurate and it's currently being worked out right now.

In most cases, a dispute is how you can clean up your credit report which ultimately increases your credit score if that dispute results in a removed account.

That means in general, disputes are great to do when there's inaccurate information on your report! However during the mortgage process, your credit profile can't be up in the air as that causes uncertainty with lenders and in turn increases risk.  

 

Open Disputes Don't Always Get Removed Automatically

The sad truth is that not everything displayed on a credit report is always accurate. Some details (including open disputes) can linger and be on there forever unless directly addressed. 

This means that even after a dispute is resolved, the comments saying that the account is being disputed might still be on there. It's not guranteed that the dispute will be automatically removed. In fact, we've seen disputes stay on reports for years if not addressed!

Removing disputes from your credit report is actually very simple that will take you about 15 minutes to complete. Plus, all three credit bureaus will have the dispute comments removed within 24-72 hours.

 

Step By Step on How to Remove a Credit Dispute

 Step 1: Get a Copy of Your Credit Report

You need the specific details of the credit dispute that are displayed on your credit report. Once you have the account number, creditor, and any other necessary details (sometimes the date or applicable bureau is needed), you're ready to get it removed.

 Step 2: Call the 3 Different Credit Bureaus

To get a credit dispute removed within 48 hours, you'll need to pick up the phone and talk to a live person at all three of the credit bureaus. To save you time, here's the phone numbers of each along with how to quickly connect to an agent:

Experian | (714) 830-7000 | Press 0 to be connected to a live agent.

Transunion | (800) 916-8800 | Press 3 during the first message, then press 2 to be connected to a live agent.

Equifax | (800) 846-5279 | You will be directly connected to a live agent.

Step 3: Request Removal

Once on the phone with each credit bureau, just politely ask that they remove the dispute. They might ask for specific details on that account to ensure they do it correctly. Sometimes they might even ask you questions to verify your identity. Keep in mind that they'll never ask for full details to help prevent identity fraud.

 

Simple As That!

What seems like a daunting task is actually very easy to do. A couple quick phone calls to each of the bureaus will have your credit report corrected and ready to rock for your final loan approval.

This is one of the many reasons of why it's so important to keep a close eye on your credit report.