MoneyCredit report errors
Credit report errors in Arizona
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., requires credit bureaus to follow reasonable procedures to keep your file accurate and, once you dispute an item in writing, to reinvestigate, generally within 30 days, and to correct or delete what cannot be verified. The company that reported the item owes its own duty to investigate. When an error survives a proper dispute, you may have a claim for the harm it caused, a denied mortgage, a higher rate, a lost job, and for willful violations the statute allows statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation, with attorney fees shifted to the defendant. The deadline is two years from discovery or five years from the violation, whichever is earlier.
What Blueshoe does
The groundwork, in order, before you decide anything.
- 01
Pull the reports and find the errors
All three bureaus, each inaccurate item identified, and the furnisher behind it. Mixed files, a stranger's collection account, and debts marked open after discharge are the usual suspects.
- 02
Draft the dispute
A written dispute to each bureau with the documents that prove the item is wrong, sent so there is proof of delivery. That letter is what triggers the reinvestigation duty, so it is drafted to be read by a court later.
- 03
Track the response
What each bureau did within 30 days, whether the item was deleted, corrected, or came back verified, and what the error cost you in the meantime: the denial letter, the rate quote, the lost apartment.
- 04
An attorney can bring the claim
When the error survives, a licensed Arizona attorney can review the dispute record and file the FCRA claim, in federal court if appropriate, with the statute's fee-shifting in play, on terms stated in writing first.
What the law says
What the law says about credit report errors in Arizona
What does the FCRA require of the credit bureaus?
Reasonable procedures to keep your file accurate, and a reasonable reinvestigation when you dispute an item, generally completed within 30 days, with written results sent to you. Information that cannot be verified must be deleted or corrected. A bureau that rubber-stamps a furnisher's one-word verification of a provably false item has not reinvestigated, and that failure may support a claim.
Why does the dispute have to be in writing, to the bureau?
Because the bureau's duty to reinvestigate, and the furnisher's duty to investigate, are triggered by a dispute sent to the bureau. A phone call or an online checkbox leaves a thin record; a letter with your documents, sent with proof of delivery, creates the file a court can read. Private claims against a furnisher generally follow a bureau dispute.
Include a copy of your ID, the report with the item circled, and whatever proves the error: the discharge order, the paid-in-full letter, the police report. Keep a copy of the whole packet.
What can I recover?
Actual damages for the harm the error caused: a denied or costlier loan, a lost job or apartment, time and distress. For a willful violation, the FCRA allows statutory damages of $100 to $1,000 per violation and punitive damages. In either case the statute lets a court award a prevailing consumer's attorney fees and costs against the bureau or furnisher.
How long do I have?
Two years from the date you discovered the violation, or five years from the date it occurred, whichever is earlier. Each failed reinvestigation can be its own violation, so a fresh dispute can matter even on an old error, but the harm you can prove, a specific denial on a specific date, is what the claim is measured by.
Someone opened accounts in my name. Is that an FCRA claim?
It can become one. Start with an FTC identity theft report, a fraud alert or credit freeze, and a written dispute of each fraudulent account with the bureaus; the FCRA lets an identity theft victim ask that the fraudulent information be blocked. When a bureau or lender keeps reporting accounts you never opened after disputes, the claim may begin there.
What it costs
No fee unless you recover.
Asking costs nothing. If you engage Blueshoe on a contingency basis, the fee is a percentage of what is recovered, stated in a written engagement agreement, and nothing is owed if there is no recovery. Case costs, such as filing fees and records, are set out in the same agreement, including whether they come out before or after the fee is calculated. The statutes behind these claims also let a court order the other side to pay a prevailing consumer's attorney fees, so often no fee is owed by the client at all; the written agreement states how a fee award and the contingency percentage interact.
- Free to ask
- Written assessment before any fee
- Engagement terms in writing
- No billable hours
Questions people ask
Dispute again, in writing, with the documents that prove the item is wrong, sent with proof of delivery. If it comes back verified a second time, that record is often the core of a claim: a bureau that returned a provably false item twice has a reinvestigation problem.
More under Money
- Debt collectorsRepeated calls, threats, calls to your family or workplace, a debt you do not recognize.Read more
- Scams & fraudA contractor who took the deposit and vanished, a subscription trap, a fake investment, a stolen identity.Read more
- Medical billsA surprise out-of-network bill, a balance your insurer should have paid, a medical debt in collections.Read more
Legally reviewed by Catherine O’Grady, State Bar of Arizona No. 011647
Managing partner & chief compliance officer · 30+ years in practice · Reviewed 2026-10-08 · Full bio →