Know Your Rights.
Then Use Them.

Your credit report can only be accessed by parties with a legally "permissible purpose" — a lender evaluating your application, a landlord screening a rental application you submitted, an insurer underwriting your policy, or an employer with your written consent. Anyone else pulling your report without permissible purpose is violating federal law.

Negative information cannot stay on your credit report forever. The FCRA sets hard time limits: 7 years for late payments, collections, and charge-offs (measured from the date of first delinquency); 10 years for Chapter 7 bankruptcy; 7 years for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Hard inquiries fall off after 2 years.

• The clock runs from the date of first delinquency — not the date a collector bought the debt, not the date of last payment, and not the date it was charged off
• "Re-aging" — changing the date of first delinquency to extend the reporting period — is illegal under the FCRA

If you are an identity theft victim, bureaus must block fraudulent information within 4 business days of receiving your written request, an FTC Identity Theft Report, proof of identity, and identification of the fraudulent items. This is dramatically faster and stronger than the standard 30-day dispute process — and the block is mandatory, not discretionary.

Section 609 entitles you to all information in your credit file, including the sources of that information. The practical dispute application: requesting the original documentation behind a tradeline — the signed agreement, the original application. If the bureau cannot verify the item with documentation, Section 611 requires its deletion. This is the legal basis of the widely known "609 letter."

When you dispute an item, the bureau must conduct a reasonable reinvestigation within 30 days, forward your dispute to the furnisher, and delete or correct anything that cannot be verified. If they claim an item was "verified," you have the right to demand a description of their verification procedure — including who they contacted and how. This follow-up demand is the "611 letter."

The companies that report data to bureaus — creditors, lenders, collectors — have their own legal duties under §623. They must report accurately, investigate direct disputes within 30 days, and correct errors with every bureau they reported to. When a bureau keeps "verifying" an error based on the furnisher's say-so, going directly to the furnisher is the move.

Debt collectors may not contact you before 8am or after 9pm your local time, may not contact you at work if they know your employer prohibits it, and must stop contacting you entirely if you send a written cease communication request. After a cease letter, they may only contact you to confirm they are stopping or to notify you of a specific action like a lawsuit.

Collectors may not misrepresent the amount you owe, falsely claim to be attorneys or government agents, threaten arrest or jail (debt is civil, not criminal), threaten lawsuits they do not intend to file, or claim a time-barred debt is legally enforceable. Every one of these is a documented, common violation.

Collectors may not add fees or interest not authorized by your original agreement or state law, deposit post-dated checks early, threaten to take property they have no legal right to take, or contact you by postcard (which exposes your debt to others). Inflated balances — original debt plus unauthorized "collection fees" — are among the most common violations.

Within 5 days of first contact, a collector must send you a validation notice stating the amount, the creditor's name, and your dispute rights. If you dispute in writing within 30 days, the collector must stop all collection activity — including credit bureau reporting — until they mail you written verification. Many collectors, especially debt buyers holding resold accounts, cannot produce it.

The FDCPA has teeth. A collector who violates the law is liable for your actual damages, statutory damages up to $1,000 per lawsuit, and your attorney fees and court costs. The attorney fee provision is why consumer law attorneys routinely take FDCPA cases on contingency — a documented violation costs you nothing to pursue.

• 1. Pull all three reports — AnnualCreditReport.com is the only federally authorized free source. You cannot dispute what you have not seen.
• 2. Audit against §605 time limits — anything past its 7-year window comes off first. These are the easiest wins.
• 3. Validate active collections under §809 — before disputing or paying anything, make the collector prove the debt. Many cannot.
• 4. Dispute inaccuracies under §609/§611 — bureau disputes with certified mail, then 611 follow-ups on anything "verified" without evidence.
• 5. Go to the furnisher under §623 — when bureaus rubber-stamp, dispute directly with the company reporting the error.
• 6. Escalate to the CFPB — regulatory complaints get responses internal disputes do not.
• 7. Document violations for §813 leverage — a paper trail of violations is settlement leverage and, if needed, the foundation of a fee-shifted lawsuit.

The complete playbook with letters for every step: Credit Dispute Guide → · All templates free: Dispute Letter Templates →