No Consumer Statement Will Affect Your Credit Score

Myth #22: Raise your Credit Score by Adding a "Consumer Statement"

Fact: Adding a "Consumer Statement" has no affect on your credit score

If you do not agree with the reporting details of a creditor account on your credit report, you can add a "Consumer Statement." However, this will not improve your credit score.

It is the responsibility of your creditors to report "Account information disputed by consumer" to the Credit Reporting Agencies if they do not agree with your dispute. This remark will appear on your credit report within 30 days and stay on your account until it is no longer reported. (Most accounts are reported for 7+ years)

Typically, a creditor posts this remark to your credit report because of an action initiated by you. However, the creditor may be reporting an account that is not yours, you are the victim of identity theft or there may be an error in the amount owed. The Fair Credit Reporting Act governs how the credit reporting agencies are required to handle consumer disputes.

There is a pitfall to having this statement added. There is no such thing as a dispute period shown on a credit report. Creditors and Credit Bureaus are required to respond within thirty days of your dispute, however that is their requirement and is not reflected anywhere on your credit report. Since your credit report does not contain a date of original dispute, there is no way for a lender or scoring agency to calculate a dispute period.

This also means that while your dispute is being resolved, your credit score is not artificially high, created by credit scoring calculations somehow skipping an account in a fictitious dispute period. Despite reports to the contrary, this simply does not happen.

Potential lenders do not wait until disputes are resolved unless they have first-hand knowledge of the dispute and because they cannot see a dispute-originated date.

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