If there’s wrong information on your credit report, you already know how much damage it can cause. Denied loans, higher interest rates, lost job opportunities — all because of an error you didn’t make.
The good news: federal law is on your side. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you the right to dispute inaccurate information and hold credit bureaus accountable when they fail to fix it. If the bureaus won’t correct the errors, you can sue — and recover compensation for the harm they’ve caused.
At Ware Law Firm, we’ve been helping Mississippi consumers fix credit reporting errors and fight back against Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion for more than 20 years.
Mississippi Has a History of Credit Bureau Abuse
Mississippi consumers have long been targets of credit reporting agency misconduct. In 2016, the state won a $7.175 million judgment against Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion over deceptive marketing practices — the bureaus were enrolling unsuspecting Mississippi residents in expensive monthly credit monitoring services by luring them in with offers for a “free credit score” or “$1 credit report.”
That particular scheme has been resolved, but the underlying problem hasn’t gone away. Credit bureaus continue to include inaccurate information on consumer reports. Worse, when consumers challenge those inaccuracies, the bureaus often fail to conduct a proper investigation — leaving the errors in place and the consumer stuck with a damaged credit score.
Federal Laws That Protect Your Credit
Consumer credit protections have been building since the late 1960s, starting with the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA). The most important law for credit report accuracy is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), enacted in 1970 and amended several times since.
Under the FCRA, you have the right to:
- Know when your credit report is used against you — such as in a denial of credit, employment, or insurance.
- Access the information in your file — the three major bureaus now offer free weekly online reports through AnnualCreditReport.com.
- Dispute inaccurate or incomplete information — and have the bureau investigate, usually within 30 days.
- Have outdated negative information removed — most negative items must come off after seven years (ten years for bankruptcy).
- Privacy protections — only parties with a valid need, such as insurers, landlords, or creditors, can access your report. Employers must get your written permission first.
- Sue for damages when anyone violates the FCRA — including credit bureaus, creditors, and debt collectors.
The FCRA also contains more targeted protections through related acts: the Credit CARD Act places accountability requirements on credit card companies, the Dodd-Frank Act created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to oversee credit reporting, and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act strengthens protections for victims of identity theft and military personnel on active duty.
Types of Credit Report Errors You Can Dispute
You can dispute any information on your credit report that is inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, or unverifiable. Common errors include:
- Payments reported late that were actually on time — even one incorrect late payment can drop your score significantly.
- Wrong account status — such as an account reported as past due when it’s actually current, or an open account listed as closed.
- Accounts that don’t belong to you — this could be a sign of a mixed credit file or identity theft.
- Inaccurate balances or credit limits — wrong numbers can inflate your credit utilization ratio and drag down your score.
- Incorrect creditor information — debts attributed to the wrong company or duplicated across multiple entries.
- Collections that have been paid — if you’ve settled or paid off a collection, your report should reflect that.
- Outdated information that should have aged off — negative items older than seven years (or ten for bankruptcy) should no longer appear on your report. Learn more about how long items stay on your credit report.
- Foreclosures that never happened — sometimes a foreclosure appears on your report when you never went through one.
How to Dispute Credit Reporting Errors
Once you’ve identified errors on your report, the next step is filing a formal dispute. Under the FCRA, credit bureaus have 30 days to investigate and respond after receiving your dispute (up to 45 days if you provide additional information during the investigation).
Here’s how the dispute process works:
- Contact the credit bureau — you can file a dispute with Equifax, Experian, or TransUnion online, by fax, phone, or mail. Sending your dispute by certified mail gives you a return receipt showing when the bureau received it — important documentation if you need to take legal action later.
- Clearly identify the error — specify which account or item you’re disputing and explain why the information is wrong.
- Include supporting documentation — payment records, account statements, correspondence with creditors, or any other proof that backs up your dispute.
- The bureau forwards your dispute to the furnisher — the company that originally reported the information. The furnisher must investigate and respond.
- The bureau must notify you of the results — in writing, within five days of completing the investigation. If the investigation confirms an error, the bureau must also notify the other two bureaus so they can update their records.
If the bureau determines your dispute is “frivolous,” it must inform you within five business days and explain why — and tell you what additional information you’d need to provide.
Where the Dispute Process Breaks Down
Here’s what the credit bureaus don’t want you to know: the investigation process is often a rubber stamp. The bureau takes your detailed dispute — sometimes pages of explanation with supporting documents — and reduces it to a two- or three-digit code. That code gets forwarded to the furnisher through an automated system called e-OSCAR. The furnisher checks the code against their own digital records — which likely contain the original error — and “verifies” the information as accurate.
Your documents? They may never reach the furnisher. Your detailed explanation? Condensed into a code. The result? The error stays on your report, and you get a letter saying the investigation is complete.
This is why so many disputes fail even when the consumer is right. And it’s why having an experienced attorney involved makes a real difference — especially when you’ve already tried disputing on your own and gotten nowhere.
Disputing Directly with the Furnisher
You also have the right to dispute incorrect information directly with the creditor or company that furnished it. However, there’s an important distinction: a dispute sent directly to a furnisher does not give you the same legal rights as a dispute filed through the credit bureau. If the furnisher ignores a direct dispute, you can’t sue them for that alone under the FCRA. Always start with the credit bureau to preserve your legal options.
When to Contact a Credit Reporting Errors Lawyer
You should consider talking to a Mississippi credit reporting errors lawyer if:
- You’ve filed a dispute and the bureau didn’t fix the error
- The bureau “verified” information you know is wrong
- An error that was corrected has reappeared on your report
- You’ve been denied a loan, housing, or employment because of inaccurate credit information
- You’re paying higher interest rates because of errors on your report
- You suspect identity theft or a mixed credit file
- A debt collector is reporting a debt you don’t owe and won’t stop
- You have multiple errors across your reports
You have rights and protections under the law. If you’re being ignored or rejected by the credit reporting agencies, you can pursue legal action — especially if their errors have caused you real financial or emotional harm.