There is no such thing as a silver bullet letter that removes everything negative from a credit report.  There are a lot of CROs that believe that they truly have the best letter in the world for removing items off of credit reports.  They are deluding themselves and falsely bragging about something they don’t have.

Worse yet, there are a lot of snake oil salesmen in our industry that are only too happy to take your money in exchange for a letter that you can write on behalf of your client.  Here is how:

1. In your letter, identify your client. Include his full name, address and any other address he has lived at in the past two years.  Include his date of birth and social security number.  Include a photocopy of his driver’s license and a utility bill to prove that he is the person who is signing the letter.
2. Identify the item that you are disputing. If it’s a trade line, include the account number.  If it’s anything else, recite any identifying information of the item, as it appears in the credit report, in your letter.
3. State why the item is incorrect or inaccurate. This is where a quick conversation about the Credit Repair Organization Act becomes important.  If you are repairing credit, then you are regulated by CROA.  It’s illegal to make false statements to a credit bureau in connection with fixing credit.  Hence, if your client knows that a trade line is his, do not dispute it on the basis that it’s not his or that he has no knowledge of it.  This what separates the shysters from the pros.  You can always demand that a credit bureau verify the accuracy of something without having to allege something that is simply not true.
4. State how the trade line should report. If you are disputing a trade line and not just demanding verification of it, then you should also tell the credit reporting agency just how the account should report or if it should be removed altogether.
5. Make sure your client sees and signs the letter. Today, there is no technological reason why your client should not sign his own dispute letter.  With software such as RightSignature.com (which we use and like) and Docusign.com (which we have used and hated) and others, you can email the letter to your client to sign.  Your client can sign the dispute letter from any device and the software will email both your client and you a signed copy of the letter.  We recommend Rightsignature.com.  It is very inexpensive and yet simple to use and effective.