Step One: First, you should send a dispute letter to Transunion. (Don't dispute Transunion online - you'll have no paper trail and the online dispute form forces you to limit the reason for your dispute.)
TransUnion Dispute Mailing Address
TransUnion
PO Box 2000
Chester, PA 19022
Here's the best part: If the credit card company doesn't bother responding, Transunion is forced, by law, to remove the charge off!
Results of a good Transunion dispute. I used Lexington Law (1-800-232-2903) to get these three items deleted from Transunion.
Disputing Transunion Online - It's probably a mistake to dispute Tranunion online. An online dispute leaves you without any paper trail or proof of your dispute. Plus, the online form gives you only a few options so you can't tell the whole story about the bad credit.
Disputing Transunion by Phone -Disputing over the phone with Transunion is not an option currently. They will steer you towards an online dispute which, again, is a big mistake.
Disputing bad credit with Transunion by U.S. Mail is the best option!
Writing the Transunion Dispute Letter - Putting the wrong things in a dispute letter to Transunion can get you put on RED FLAG LIST. The bureaus can tell when somebody is trying to remove accurate credit listings and you don't want to be associated with that group of people.
You also should avoid OVER-disputing which means you should limit each dispute to just a few items. Otherwise, you will only prolong the credit repair process further.
Finally, include a justifiable reason to challenge the accuracy of the item. I really struggled with this part when I tried writing a good dispute letter. Here are some valid reasons: Not my account, item is out of date, information is wrong.
However you should be aware that credit bureaus often use stall tactics to avoid investigating and fixing your credit report. If this happens to you, consider using debt validation, pay-for-delete, goodwill negotiations, escalated information requests, and more to get rid of the negative credit report items.
The bottom line is that if you are repairing your credit yourself, you must have a mountain of patience and cannot be in a hurry to get results.
I started with do-it-yourself type credit disputes where I drafted my own dispute letters, etc, but only got a few deletions. I enrolled in the Lexington Credit Repair program to get rid of the remaining charge offs and collections (and a judgment!).