Bad credit on your credit report such as closed accounts including those that were left with balance or went to collectors are not good for the credit score. Paid and closed accounts are those that have been removed from your credit report but they can still bring a negative impact to your score if they take a huge portion of your credit history. Thankfully, they allow you to send what is called a ‘609 letter’, in which you can request for closed accounts to be omitted from the credit report.
In conclusion, a 609 letter is a type of credit report that analyzes and provides information on a consumer’s credit history.
A 609 letter is a particular kind of legal letter that consumers use to challenge information that’s inaccurate, incomplete, or unprovable on their credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. FCRA section 609 is part of the legal statute that entitles the consumer with one free credit report annually and also empowers the credit bureaus to delete information that is deemed to be incorrect, incomplete, or unprovable.
This complies with the FCRA which expects credit bureaus to investigate once they receive a dispute notice in writing from a consumer. Thus a properly written 609 dispute letter creates legal liabilities on the part of the credit bureau to Section 609 requiring the credit bureau to investigate the information that is being disputed for one month and make corrections or deletions if the information that was disputed cannot be validated.
609 Letter: Overview
Even if you want to contest any information or entries that you consider as either wrong or which have not been substantiated, all you need to do is to write to the credit bureaus and explain what you believe to be in error or reported falsely, while a 609 letter is more formal and official and is written to compel a response in line with some provisions of the FCRA. Follow these steps when drafting your 609 letter:
1. When applying for a credit report tell the credit bureau who you are and provide all of your personal information which includes: full name, date of birth, resident address, phone number, social security number, etc.
2. Please note that you are writing in further exercise of your rights under Section 609 of the FCRA and are required to request an investigation of the information in your credit file that is in dispute. To sample, state that you have reviewed your credit report and noticed certain accounts or information that you believe to be erroneous or unverified.
3. You have to list the full name of the account, the account number, and the type of information that you are disputing for each account you wish to have removed. Some of the frequent complaints are other people’s accounts being included in your report, accounts that were closed are still reported to be open, improper payment history where you are reported to have had a payment that you indeed did not make or the payment was made late when in fact you made the payment on time, etc.
4. Who, you claim, fabricated these accounts or information and why do you disagree with them? The third step entails being specific about why the consumer considers the information wrong, misleading, or unverifiable by the credit bureau. Include state facts wherever possible to back up your statements and provide a clear account of the discrepancy between the information that has been released and the truth.
5. Ask for it to be deleted on the grounds of Section 609 whereby if the accounts provided are false or the information cannot be verified then they ought to be deleted upon completion of an investigation by the credit bureau. Also, ask that the credit bureau forward a copy of the report after modification, and/or deletion of the items in dispute.
6. Attach photocopies of the originals of any documents that support the resolution of the dispute and issue a statement that you are ready to provide further evidence of the dispute, if necessary. Assistance docs may involve prior and current letters, copies of statements or letters arguing with first creditors, records of payments, official documents dismissing debts, etc.
7. The return receipt requested is important and you should enclose your 609 dispute letter in a certified mail. It is recommended to make a photocopy of your dispute letter and all the enclosed documents for the personal file.
The post-investigation 609 letter is the next step you’ll need to take to ensure you have exhausted all your legal rights in a bid to have your credit report corrected.
After you have forwarded a 609 letter to challenge closed accounts or incorrect information, the credit reporting agency has thirty days to effectively investigate and expunge all unmerited claims, or information that has not been verified on your credit file. But it is equally wrong to sit back and do nothing for 30 days waiting for the results to start coming in. By ensuring that there is close follow-up during the investigation process, it is possible to ensure that improvements are made gradually.
After a couple of weeks of your dispute letter being received by the credit bureau, call to ensure the investigation has been launched on your behalf under 609. Find out if they require any other statements or any verification documents from you, and make sure to submit the forms they ask for. This aids in the progress of the investigation so that the deletions can be made within the 30-day window Spoke gets under FCRA.
Credit furnishers that report negative information regarding you can also be contacted especially for any accounts that were entered wrongly and belong to different people. This is because when an applicant gets false or inaccurate data deleted at the source, then they are also cleared from the credit file. Inform the furnishers of your disputes in progress with credit bureaus and seek confirmation from the furnishers that they would not report further information about you that is incorrect.
If the credit bureau fails to respond within 30 days after receiving your 609 letter, then they violate the FCRA and are required by law to cease reporting the disputed information immediately and provide you with a report of your investigation results. After completing their investigation, they should provide the consumer with a new credit report that has been updated, and ensure that all entries which were previously reported had either been corrected, deleted, or removed.
If items are not deleted from your credit file and you still think that they are unlawful or contain wrong details, you are free to argue with the investigation outcome at the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer complaint division and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Contact the regulators for assistance in forcing the credit bureaus to make the needed corrections as and when it is observed that the required FCRA deletions were not done in compliance with the 609 dispute letters received.
Closing Your Accounts that Are No Longer Active for Credit Repair
Although credit accounts are reported for 7-10 years by the credit bureau, paid-off accounts that are inactive are still reflected on your credit report as long as you still owe them money even though they slowly decrease in potency over time. However, closed accounts that have negative statuses such as ‘past due,’ ‘sent to collections,’ or ‘charged off’ will continue inflicting damage on the credit scores as they drag down your credit utilization rates and lower the average credit history of the credit accounts.
In a bid to eliminate the credit report, sending 609 letters can make invalid and unverifiable closed accounts to be erased and the credit report reveals only active accounts that are in good standing. Removing derogatory marks is also useful in increasing the credit score, given that 35% of the FICO scoring model goes to payment history.
He/she should be persistent until such a time that all erroneous, outdated, or unverified closed accounts are no longer reflected on your most recent credit report after the 609 investigation. The depreciation from closed accounts that were left in a bad standing can be an added advantage in that relief can facilitate score gains of 100 points or more within 30 days after the Section 609 challenges.
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