Whenever a creditor views your credit history, it will appear as an inquiry on your credit report. Too many inquiries can lower your Credit Score, which may cause your credit application to be denied.

A credit bureau gathers information about how consumers use credit. In other words, they collect information from as many consumer financial transactions or inquiries as they can. They then sell access to that combined information to anyone who has a legally-recognized reason (permissible purpose).

Debt settlement, also known as debt arbitration, debt negotiation or credit settlement, is an approach to debt reduction in which the debtor and creditor agree on a reduced balance that will be regarded as payment in full.

If you find errors or inaccuracies in your credit history file, you will have to submit a dispute letter or request to each of the credit bureaus on which the mistake appears. In some cases you may be able to dispute the error with online forms, but in some cases you’ll have to submit a letter with your corroborating documents.

If it has been thirty days since you disputed a debt and you still have not received a response from the creditor and/or the credit bureau, then you should follow-up with the credit bureau as soon as possible. It is common for credit bureaus to become overwhelmed with disputes, and sometimes dispute letters get overlooked.