Bogus Refusal Letters
Stupid Credit Bureau Tricks: Part 1
By Daniel Muniz

One stupid but annoying trick that the credit bureaus or Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRA) employ is refusing to investigate your dispute because they assume that it was written by a credit repair clinic or by some other illegitimate third-party.

It is totally irrelevant if you wrote the letter yourself; the CRAs just make the assumption that some illicit third-party did.

But first things first; it is not illegal to use a credit repair clinic.

However, the public has been inundated with countless stories that most clinics scam you out of your money either by not repairing your credit or by performing illegal activities to fix it. But most importantly, anything that a credit repair clinic can do, you can do yourself.

In a way, I believe that this attention is great because the federal government, as well as numerous state legislatures, have begun to aggressively pursue the credit repair shysters. And such a vigorous effort is needed.

I personally detest the clinics because they are shams. Almost all of them make outrageous claims of how they can instantly repair your credit even though they know very little about the credit reporting and credit scoring process. And worse, they know almost nothing about rebuilding a credit score. They are simply predators who seek out desperate or naïve individuals who need to improve their credit.

However, I do happen to know a handful of them who are actually legitimate and are very knowledgeable in their craft. And I have even learned a number of interesting tips from them. In fact, the real experts make no bones that anybody can do it themselves and they are even willing to offer suggestions of how repairing your credit can be done. And the major difference with the valid individuals and organizations is that they also have an expertise in rebuilding your credit, which takes years of exercising responsible credit behavior.

And for a fee, the authentic credit repair experts can do the repair work for you. And it is perfectly legal and legitimate. There is absolutely nothing illegal about using them.

Unfortunately, all the attention that the credit repair scams garnered produced an unintended consequence. The CRAs now see any well written dispute as a sham performed by the fraudulent credit repair clinics.

As a result, they immediately reject anything that looks like a form letter or is too professionally written. Such assertions are entirely bogus and the CRAs ought to know better, especially as the public becomes more educated in the credit reporting process and in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

In addition, the public will continue to become more knowledgeable as such disputes become prevalent, especially because of the sloppy reporting done by creditors.

I have personally written a couple hundred disputes to each CRA in an effort to correct errors and challenge violations. The moment I began to receive the “credit repair clinic” refusal, I was incensed because I wrote the letter myself. And I was angry at how a credit bureau could assume something that was not true.

However, the quick and easy way to stop this nonsense is to be proactive about it.

I have now attached the following postscript to each dispute I have sent to each CRA:

I alone wrote this formal complaint in its entirety. I had no assistance from any third party such as a credit repair clinic; therefore you are obligated under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to fully investigate this consumer dispute.

This postscript is brief and self-explanatory. Afterwards, I rarely received such a refusal again.

Once in a great while, I did receive a refusal even with my postscript but it was quite rare for it to happen. I simply sent the same letter again when I mailed out my next round of disputes.

Other people prefer to use the lawsuit threats but I have always avoided them. I firmly believe that such a challenge is pointless unless you are fully prepared to go all the way with it. And these kinds of threats only designate you for the “special handling” status that results in making future investigations even more difficult.

There are plenty people who are fully prepared and comfortable with going to court and more power to them.

As for me, I just want to get this error corrected or the creditor violation removed. Like most people, I don’t want the drama or the expense of going to court because I just want to move on with my life. I will do it if I am forced to and have no other recourse but for something as procedural as this, I don’t see it as worth the time or effort for a court case.

And incidentally, sending the identical letter with the postscript the second time helped get the dispute investigated. And that’s all I wanted.

Only one time did resending the same letter fail. I merely sent it again and it dispute got investigated. Although this has never happened to me but I continued to get these refusal letters, then I would seriously consider utilizing the last resort but not until I have to.

But overall, the CRAs need to get over their nonsense. Normal ordinary people are perfectly capable of writing well thought out professional letters themselves. And the credit bureaus better start getting used to it.

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