The dispute process starts with the first round of dispute letters, often called Round 1. Each time you send a dispute letter to a credit bureau, the bureau will investigate and mail a response back within 30-45 days. The response letter should include the investigation results for each disputed item. Make sure to ask your clients to forward you the response letters so you can determine what to do next. In this article, we’ll share valuable pointers to help you with the next steps after Round 1.
Table of contents:
To start, make sure you have the following:
With every response letter, you will usually find:
A couple of pages of consumer disclosures advising you of your rights.
A blank page intentionally left blank.
A full or partial credit report.
An investigation results page, listing the accounts which were investigated, along with the outcome of each investigation.
The investigation results page is what you're looking for.
What are the three response types after Round 1?
The next step you take depends on the response you received. There are many ways it can go, but for the sake of simplicity, there are 3 different response types:
No Response: meaning you do not receive any response in the mail. If one or more of the bureaus does not respond, you can follow up with a “no response” letter template.
Verified: meaning the bureau refuses to delete the disputed items. This could be a letter verifying the item, or it could be a stall letter. If the information was verified, you can follow up requesting the method of verification, you can send a warning letter, or even file a complaint to get their attention. If it was a stalling letter, the bureaus may be asking for more information or they just dismiss your investigation due to a reason they think is sufficient. We have over 100 letters in our library to suit any situation.
Deleted: meaning the bureau removed the information from your report. This is the result we want. If the item was deleted, you can start over with Round 1 and dispute additional items. Also, go to the "Dispute Items" page and change the status to deleted. Once you update the item to "Deleted" status, your client gets a notification and you look like a hero!
Remember, every cycle will be different. Each credit bureau maintains its own records and has different procedures, so you will often see items removed on one bureau, but not the next. You simply review the results for each round and make a decision on what to do next. Our training will teach you all the details, and if you ever get stuck, you can always lean on our Facebook Community to ask questions and hear the opinions of our 17,000+ members.
Basic Disputing Course
If you want to truly understand all the basics of the dispute process, we highly recommend you take our Basic Disputing Course.
Although the credit repair process is not difficult, this article is simply a summary of what comes after Round 1. There are many additional strategies including direct furnisher disputes, validation demands, goodwill interventions, factual disputing, filing complaints, debt settlement, and a range of credit building techniques you can do to get your client's results. Regardless of your experience level, our online courses, live training, and #CreditHero community are here to help you every step of the way.
What you can do now: