Credit Bureaus & the ACDV

I’ve learned more about my credit and credit in general in 1 week on this site than I’ve learned about credit in my entire adult life!  Keep it up!

A couple weeks ago I disputed some derogatory tradelines on my Transunion report.  I now know that I should be doing the disputes in writing.  But just a few days after I submitted my disputes online, I checked the dispute status.  To my shock, Transunion was indicating that a handful of the disputes were already verified after just a few days!  Is that possible that the items can be verified this quickly?  Did they do it via email?  3 days just seemed WAY too fast to verify legally something such as that. Have you heard of this?  And if so, is it possible?

Thanks!

Elliot

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Hello Elliot,

The credit bureaus use a system called the Automated Consumer Dispute Verification (ACVD) or E-Oscar.  The following information is from the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) June 2003 testimony regarding the “Fair Credit Reporting Act: How It Functions for Consumers and the Economy”:

Each agency has a different process for handling these disputes, but all three use a similar system.  The three bureaus collaborated through their trade organization to automate the entire reinvestigation process using an online computer program, E-Oscar.  Upon receiving a written dispute, often in the form of a detailed letter with documents attached, the CRA assigns the dispute to its dispute department…No matter how detailed the written dispute, the CRA will merely translate it into a two digit code and, usually by automated means (ACDV), send a message to the furnisher identifying the code its employee believes best describes the dispute.  The employees of all three CRAs operate under a quota system whereby each employee is expected to process all of the disputes of an individual consumer in less than four minutes.

Now let’s fast forward from June 2003 to August 2006 and examine the FTC’s “Report to Congress on the Fair Credit Reporting Act Dispute Process”.  Page eighteen of the FTC’s report states: “TransUnion stated that it typically does not supply copies of consumer-supplied documentation to furnishers but added that, ‘if the documentation can be reasonably verified as being authentic, the account is automatically updated based on the documentation, in lieu of sending an ACDV or CDV.’  Equifax noted that it currently provides two methods of supplementing the e-OSCAR dispute codes and free-form field: (1) a copy of documentation can be faxed to the furnisher as appropriate and (2) furnishers can contact CRAs with questions they have about a particular dispute”.

Now fast forward to Saenz v. Trans Union and Gorman v. Experian et al. for the ugly side of the ACDV.  The credit bureaus love the ACDV.

Thanks for the questions and hope this helps.

Paul