In the United States, there are three major credit bureaus that maintain completely separate files of consumer credit information. Your credit reports provided by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion might not all be the same and you have to work with each bureau separately to get inaccurate information deleted from your credit report.
Guidelines for Deletion
Credit bureaus delete information from your credit report only if it is incorrect or has been on your credit report for longer than it legally can be. In general, negative information can stay on your credit report for no more than seven years, or 10 years in the case of Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Unpaid tax liens and criminal convictions have no time limit. If you have negative information that is older than this, you can ask the credit bureaus to delete it.
Examine Reports Separately
When you have information that you would like to have deleted from your credit reports because it is inaccurate or too old, first check to see if the information appears on all three reports. If the mistake was on the part of the credit bureau, for example, if they inadvertently placed an account on your report that actually belongs to someone with a similar name, it will probably be on just one credit report. Look over all three of your credit reports and mark the information on each report that needs to be deleted.
File Separate Disputes
Credit bureaus do not share information between themselves, so you need to file a dispute with each credit bureau to delete incorrect information from each credit report. Find information about how to file disputes on the last page of each of your credit reports. You can either file online or write a letter and send it by postal mail. MSNBC recommends writing letters to increase the chances of having your dispute processed thoroughly. Each credit bureau will handle the dispute separately and determine whether the information is eligible for deletion.
Similar Deletions
When you file a dispute with each credit bureau for an item that appears on each report, they will likely come to the same conclusion. Either the creditor who furnished the information will verify it for each credit bureau and it will stay on your report or the creditor will fail to verify it and all three credit bureaus will delete the information. If they come back with different results, file another dispute with the bureau that did not delete it and request another review. Mention that another bureau deleted the information to help validate your dispute.
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