If you disputed an error and the credit bureau ignored it or brushed it off, federal law still applies. A credit bureau generally must reasonably reinvestigate a dispute within 30 days of receiving it and pass it to the company that reported the item. It must also delete or correct information it finds wrong or cannot verify.
A consumer in this position may have found an account that isn't theirs, a balance that was paid, or a late payment that never happened. They wrote to the bureau and waited. Then the month went by with no answer, or a short letter arrived saying the item was "verified" and nothing changed. Now the error is still there, possibly affecting an application, and the question is whether the bureau did what the law requires and what comes next.
This page walks through the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the federal law that governs credit bureaus and the companies that report to them. It covers the deadlines, the companies' separate duties, the remedies the statute provides, and what happens after a reinvestigation ends.
A consumer reporting agency, or CRA, is a company that gathers information about consumers and sells it as reports. The CFPB explains that credit reporting companies, also called credit bureaus or consumer reporting agencies, are companies that compile and sell credit reports.
A reinvestigation is the bureau's second look at an item a consumer says is wrong. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A), when a consumer tells a CRA directly, or through a reseller, that an item in the file is incomplete or inaccurate, the CRA "shall, free of charge, conduct a reasonable reinvestigation." It must record the current status of the item or delete it, before the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date the CRA receives the notice. The clock runs from receipt, not from the date the consumer sent the dispute.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(B), that 30-day period may be extended by up to 15 more days if the CRA receives relevant information from the consumer during the first 30 days. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(C), the extension does not apply to a reinvestigation in which, during those 30 days, the information is found to be inaccurate or incomplete or the CRA determines that it cannot be verified.
A furnisher is the company that reported the information to the CRA, such as a lender, a card issuer or a collection agency. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(2), the CRA must notify the furnisher within 5 business days of receiving the dispute, with all relevant information the consumer sent. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(5)(A), an item found inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable must be promptly deleted or modified, and the furnisher must be told. The CFPB states that the CRA has five business days after completing an investigation to notify the consumer of the results.
What "Failed to Investigate" Can Mean in Practice
The clearest failure to measure is time. If 30 days pass after the CRA received the dispute, or 45 days where the extension applies, and the item has neither been reinvestigated nor deleted, the deadline in 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A) is the yardstick.
Other failures are harder to see. They include:
- No response at all within the statutory period.
- A response that restates the item with no sign that anything was checked.
- No notice to the furnisher, where the dispute was never passed on with the consumer's information, as 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(2) requires.
- No results notice after the reinvestigation ended.
The word "reasonable" matters here. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(4), the CRA "shall review and consider all relevant information submitted by the consumer" during the reinvestigation period. A response that ignores the documents a consumer sent may fall short of that, though whether it does depends on the facts.
One pattern is the mixed file. A mixed file is a credit file that contains another person's information, often someone with the same or a similar name.
There is one exception. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(3), a CRA may end a reinvestigation if it reasonably decides the dispute is frivolous or irrelevant, including because the consumer gave too little information. It must notify the consumer within 5 business days of that decision, by mail or another means the consumer authorized, with the reasons and the information needed to investigate.
The Furnisher's Separate Duty to Investigate
The company that reported the item has duties of its own. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)(1), once a furnisher gets notice of a dispute from a CRA, it must:
- (A) conduct an investigation of the disputed information;
- (B) review all relevant information the CRA provided;
- (C) report the results to the CRA;
- (D) if the information is incomplete or inaccurate, report that to every other nationwide CRA it furnished the information to; and
- (E) if the item is found inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable, promptly modify it, delete it or permanently block its reporting.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b)(2), the furnisher must finish this within the period the CRA has to complete its own reinvestigation.
A consumer may also send a written dispute directly to the furnisher. That triggers a different rule: 12 C.F.R. § 1022.43, part of Regulation V, the CFPB's rule carrying out the FCRA. Under 12 C.F.R. § 1022.43(a), a furnisher generally must reasonably investigate a direct dispute about the consumer's liability for the account, its terms, the consumer's payment history, or other account information bearing on creditworthiness. There are exceptions, including disputes about identifying information, past employers, inquiries, and public-record information. The furnisher must investigate only if the dispute goes to an address described in 12 C.F.R. § 1022.43(c), and the notice must identify the account, state what is disputed and why, and include reasonably required supporting documents. The furnisher must report results to the consumer within the same period a CRA would have.
A bureau's failure and a furnisher's failure are separate questions. Both can matter in the same situation, and whether either one breaks the law depends on the facts.
What the FCRA Makes Available When a Reinvestigation Obligation Is Not Met
The FCRA has two remedy sections, and which one applies turns on how the company failed.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681n(a), a person who willfully fails to comply with a requirement of the FCRA with respect to any consumer is liable for the sum of: "any actual damages sustained by the consumer as a result of the failure or damages of not less than $100 and not more than $1,000"; "such amount of punitive damages as the court may allow"; and, "in the case of any successful action," the costs of the action "together with reasonable attorney's fees as determined by the court."
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681o(a), a person who is negligent in failing to comply is liable for actual damages sustained as a result of the failure and, in a successful action, costs and reasonable attorney's fees as determined by the court. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681n(c) and 15 U.S.C. § 1681o(b), when a court finds that an unsuccessful pleading, motion or other paper was filed in bad faith or for purposes of harassment, it "shall award to the prevailing party" attorney's fees reasonable in relation to the work expended in responding to it. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(c) and (d), sections 1681n and 1681o do not apply to a violation of 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(a), including regulations issued under it (with the exception stated in 15 U.S.C. § 1681s(c)(1)(B)); those violations are enforced exclusively by the federal agencies and officials and the State officials identified in 15 U.S.C. § 1681s. That limitation does not name a furnisher's investigation duties under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b).
These are what the law makes potentially available. They depend on proof that a requirement was not met, on whether the failure was willful or negligent, and on what harm resulted. Not every missed step creates liability, and whether a particular situation violates the FCRA depends on its facts. A separate page on this site covers consumer lawsuits under federal law.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681p, an action must be brought by the earlier of 2 years after the plaintiff discovers the violation or 5 years after the violation occurs.
How to Document a Dispute and a Failure to Respond
The FCRA's trigger is simple: under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a)(1)(A), the duty to reinvestigate begins when the consumer notifies the CRA of the dispute. That subsection names no required form.
Because the deadline runs from the date the CRA receives the notice, a dated record of receipt matters. A dispute sent in writing, by a method that shows delivery, creates that record in a way an online form may not. The CFPB's page on how to dispute an error says to keep copies of the dispute letter and the documents sent with it, and it suggests sending furnisher disputes in writing by certified mail.
A useful record usually includes:
- the credit report showing the item, with its date;
- the dispute letter and every attachment;
- proof of mailing and delivery;
- any response, or a note of the date the deadline passed with none; and
- later reports showing whether the item changed.
When a CRA does not respond, or responds poorly, the CFPB states that a consumer can submit a complaint with the CFPB online, and can also complain to the state attorney general. The FTC's guide to disputing errors on credit reports explains that both the bureau and the business that supplied the information have to correct wrong or incomplete information, for free.
Common Situations Where Reinvestigation Failures Arise
These are some kinds of error that a reinvestigation dispute can involve.
Mixed files. Another consumer's accounts, addresses or collections appear in the file, as described above.
Identity theft. Accounts or inquiries the consumer never opened or authorized. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c-2(a), a CRA generally must block information the consumer identifies as resulting from alleged identity theft within 4 business days after receiving proof of identity, a copy of an identity theft report, the consumer's identification of the information, and a statement that it does not relate to any transaction by the consumer. A CRA may decline or rescind a block on grounds that section lists, such as error or a material misrepresentation, and must notify the consumer.
Re-aging. A debt reported as newer than it is, so it stays on the report longer. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(a)(4), accounts placed for collection or charged off generally may not be reported once they are more than seven years old. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681c(c)(1), that seven years begins 180 days after the start of the delinquency that came before the collection or charge-off.
Paid or settled accounts still shown as open, past due or carrying a balance.
Duplicate accounts, where one debt appears more than once, sometimes under the original creditor and a collector or a debt buyer.
What Happens After a Reinvestigation: Results, Statements of Dispute, and Continued Errors
The CFPB states that a consumer should receive a written notice of the results along with a copy of the updated credit report, and that this free report does not count as the annual free report. The results may show the item deleted, modified, or verified as accurate.
If the item was changed because of a furnisher's error, the CFPB explains that the furnisher has a duty to forward the correction to every credit reporting company it gave the wrong information to.
When the dispute stays unresolved, the CFPB says a consumer can ask that a brief statement of the dispute be included in the file and included or summarized in future credit reports. That right applies to disputes submitted to a CRA, not to disputes sent only to a furnisher. A statement is an option, not a fix: it records the disagreement but does not remove the item.
An error that remains after a completed reinvestigation may itself raise a separate legal question, depending on what the CRA and the furnisher were sent and what they did with it. The CFPB's model summary of FCRA rights notes that a CRA may continue to report information it has verified as accurate. It also notes that many states have their own consumer reporting laws, and state law may add protections that differ from state to state. This site's overview of consumer rights law covers how the FCRA fits with other federal statutes.
If You'd Like a Consumer Rights Case Review
This page explains the federal rules in general terms; it does not cover how they apply to any one person's file.
A reader may request a consumer rights case review through Federal Consumer Rights.
