How Long Does a Credit Dispute Actually Take?

It’s not uncommon to find inaccurate or unverified information on a credit report. If this happens to you, it’s possible to dispute the errors and eliminate incorrect items altogether. But if inaccuracies are bringing your credit score down, waiting for results can be tough. Here’s how long you can expect a credit dispute to take.

How Long Does a Credit Dispute Investigation Take?

In most cases, credit bureaus have 30 days after receiving your dispute to investigate it. However, if you’ve already received your yearly free credit report, this period expands to 45 days. Submitting extra information about the dispute during the investigation period also extends it to 45 days.

The actual length of a credit dispute depends on a variety of factors. With an effective dispute letter and plenty of evidence, errors can be resolved in just a few weeks. For other disputes, including resubmitted ones, the process can take months.

In general, an investigation should last no more than 45 days—about 6 weeks. Keep in mind that once the investigation is over, credit reporting agencies have 5 business days to send you the results.

How to Submit a Credit Dispute

There’s more to a credit dispute than the investigation period. Crafting a dispute and waiting for an error to be fixed add time to the process as a whole. To give you a sense of the timeline, here’s a quick guide to submitting a credit dispute.

1. Review Your Credit Reports

To start, make sure you’re looking at the most recent versions of your credit reports. You can get free credit reports from the three main credit bureaus—Experian, Equifax and TransUnion—each year. It’s a good idea to go over each report carefully, as they might have different information and different errors to correct.

2. Craft and Submit Your Dispute

Disputing an error on your report can help you fix your credit and might improve your credit score. It’s important to specify the exact reason for the dispute. This can include:

Items that aren’t yours
False late reports
Incorrect account balances
Wrong dates
A misspelled name
Old items that should have aged off the report

Be as detailed as possible when citing errors. If you can, include any evidence that might help your case, such as bank statements, utility bills or marriage certificates. Make sure you submit copies of each document and keep the originals for yourself.

In addition to documentation, you’ll need to write a credit dispute letter explaining the items you’re disputing. If you submit your dispute online, you won’t have to wait for your letter to pass through the postal system. However, sending a dispute by certified mail allows you to track its progress. Knowing when a dispute was received means you can predict when the investigation will end.

3. Review Your Results

Once the investigation is finished, you should receive a notice informing you of the results within 5 business days.

Once you receive notice of the results of your investigation, it’s time to do some analysis. If your dispute was successful, you can monitor your credit to see how the update affects your score. You can find your free credit score, updated every 14 days, on Credit.com.

4. Resubmit Your Dispute

What happens if your credit dispute is denied? If you still think your claim has merit, you can try resubmitting it for another investigation. To improve your chance of a successful dispute, consider adding more evidence to support your claim. If you’ve disputed multiple errors at once, limiting your dispute to one item at a time can also make a resolution more likely.

For complex disputes, consider hiring outside help, such as a consumer attorney, credit counselor or credit repair firm. These companies can handle the details for you and may be able to help you locate more evidence to strengthen your claim. Just make sure to vet a company carefully before partnering with them to protect your savings and personal information.

Fixing credit report errors isn’t the only way to improve poor credit. For more credit-boosting tips, check out our Credit Repair Guide today.