Free · Minnesota residents
Something on your credit report is wrong. Here is how to fix it yourself.
Credit File Corrections walks you through getting your official reports, describing exactly what is inaccurate, writing your own dispute letters, and keeping track of the responses. You stay in control of every step. Every tool is free and there is nothing to buy.
Lake Minnetonka — Glass-calm water. Photo: Dave Madgett Photograph: Calm blue lake reflecting a treeline on Lake Minnetonka.
The tools
What this site actually does
Get your official reports
We point you to AnnualCreditReport.com, the source authorized by federal law. We never ask for your credit bureau username or password.
Start with the reportsDescribe the error precisely
A vague dispute gets a form letter back. Our guides help you state the account, what it says, what is actually true, and what you want corrected.
Read the dispute guidesWrite your own letters
Editable templates for credit bureaus, for the company that reported the item, and for identity theft. You review, sign, and mail them yourself.
Open the letter builderTrack what comes back
Keep the dates, the letters, and the responses in one place, so that if this ever becomes a legal problem the record already exists.
See what to keep
The machinery
What happens to a dispute after you send it
Knowing the shape of the process changes what is worth putting in the envelope. It is more automated, and moves through more hands, than most people expect.
The bureau receives it and the clock starts
The reinvestigation period runs from receipt, not from the day you mailed it. The 30-day clock, and what extends it →
Your letter is condensed into a code
Most disputes reach the company that reported the item as one or two numeric reason codes plus a short text field — not as the letter you wrote. How that translation works →
The company that reported it investigates
Federal law gives that company its own duties and its own deadline, tied to the bureau's. What those duties are →
You get a written result — and three rights most people never use
The results notice has to contain five specific things. Three of them only do something if you act on them. What you are owed at the end →
The 2012 figures describe that period, not this month — they are the most detailed public description of the pipeline, and we say so rather than presenting them as current. Sources and dates are on every article. Read the industry news section →
The limits
What this site will never do
- Charge you for the tools. Every one of them is free, there is no paid tier and no upsell, and nothing here is gated behind an email address.
- Ask for your credit bureau login. We do not log in as you or store your credentials.
- Send a dispute for you. You review, sign, and send every letter yourself.
- Tell you your case is strong, weak, or worth a dollar amount. No machine on this site scores a situation nobody has read, and none ever will.
- Promise a deletion, a score increase, or a payout. Nobody honestly can.
- Take what you type into the letter builder. It runs in your browser and transmits nothing — not to us, not to anyone.
- Telephone you because you started a form and stopped. If you send us a request we reply in writing, and you can tell us to stop.
The word "repair" does not appear in what we do, because we do not repair anything — you do, using accurate facts about your own file.
If it does not work
If a dispute does not fix the problem
Sometimes a credit bureau or a furnisher verifies an item that is genuinely wrong, or does not respond at all. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act sets out what they are required to do, and a lawyer can tell you whether what happened to you matters legally.
Madgett Law, LLC — the firm that publishes this site — will look at what happened, at no charge and with no obligation on either side. It is entirely your choice, it happens only if you fill out the request yourself, and nothing about your use of this site reaches us unless you do. Asking is not hiring: you do not become a client unless and until we both sign a written agreement, and we may have to decline.
Where to start
You can do the whole of this yourself, today, for nothing.
Pull the three reports federal law entitles you to, find what is actually wrong, and write the letter in your own words. The builder runs in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. Then keep the copy you mailed and the date you mailed it.