How to use the nine sections, and what each one can actually request

Section 1681i(a)(5)(A) says that if a disputed item cannot be verified, the bureau shall delete it. That is the only sentence in the Act that ends in a deletion, and it is conditional on a reinvestigation that found nothing to verify. Which means: every legitimate request in this business is the same request, made in the right place, about the right field, with the right document. The nine sections in yesterday's piece are nine places to make it. Here is how, one situation at a time, in the six lines.

1. A collection, inside thirty days of the collector's notice

Section: § 1692g(b). Request: validation, with the itemization § 1006.34 requires, and a pause on collection until it arrives. Letter D, to the collector. If the window has passed, this section is spent. The collection is disputed instead as an account, on the field that is wrong, with the original creditor's statement as the exhibit, under the next entry.

2. A late payment that is wrong

Section: § 1681i(a)(1) to the bureau, § 1681s-2(a)(8) to the furnisher. Field: the payment status for the month. Exhibit: the statement or the servicer's history showing it paid. Request: correct the month, or delete the item if the furnisher cannot verify the month from its own records. What it cannot request: the removal of a month you paid late.

3. A charge-off with a wrong field

Same two sections. Field: balance, status, or date of first delinquency. Exhibit: the creditor's own statement, or the other two bureaus' pages where they disagree. Request: correct or delete. A charge-off with every field right gets no letter; it gets a departure date on the worksheet.

4. A bankruptcy older than ten years, or an included account still showing a balance

Section: § 1681c(a)(1) for the age, § 1681i for the accounts. Field: reporting period, or balance. Exhibit: the filing date on the report itself, or the discharge order and schedule of creditors. Request: delete the obsolete item, or correct the included accounts to $0 and "included in bankruptcy."

5. A repossession older than seven years and 180 days from first delinquency

Section: § 1681c(a)(4) and (c)(1). Field: reporting period. Exhibit: the date of first delinquency as Equifax prints it. Request: delete. Inside the period, a repo is disputed only on a wrong field like any charge-off. The deficiency itself is a state-law question for counsel.

6. An eviction record at a tenant-screening company

Section: § 1681i, because § 1681a(d) makes the screening file a consumer report. Field: ownership, or the case number, or the date. Exhibit: the court's docket or the dismissal. Request: correct or delete, and under § 1681c(a)(2), delete any civil judgment older than seven years. Send it to the screening company that produced the report the landlord used. Its name is on the adverse-action notice.

7. A child-support arrears entry

Section: § 1681s-1, read for the word "verified." The bureau reports what the state agency certifies. Request, to the agency, in writing: verify the arrears amount against the case record and correct the certification. Then, to the bureau, a dispute on the balance with the agency's corrected certification as the exhibit. There is no request that makes a verified arrears leave early.

8. An inquiry you never authorized

Section: § 1681b. Field: permissible purpose. Exhibit: your statement that no application was made, with any correspondence from the company. Request: delete the inquiry and identify the source. Two lines. Everything else on the inquiry list stays.

9. A name, address or employer that was never yours

Section: § 1681e(b) for the duty, § 1681i(a)(1) for the request. Field: the entry as printed. Exhibit: your identification and, for addresses, proof of where you did live. Request: delete the entry, review anything attached only to it, and delete what cannot be verified as yours under § 1681i(a)(5)(A). This one goes first, before any account, and the online form is enough for a plain entry with nothing attached.

Every one of the nine ends with the same two words the statute uses, correct or delete, and none of them ends with the word the video implies, which is "remove." A bureau deletes what a furnisher cannot verify. It corrects what a document shows is wrong. It keeps what is accurate, and § 1681i(a)(3) lets it call a letter about an accurate item frivolous. Which means: the request is never "take this off." The request is "verify this field, and if you cannot, the statute says what happens next."

The three daughters at my table audit this the same way every time: which part, and what do you have. QualifyReady tags every item to the section that reaches it and names the exhibit before a letter is drafted; you sign and send. Step one, tonight: for each item you want gone, write the section, the field, and the document on one line. If the third column is empty, it is not a dispute yet. Know your file before your lender does.