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You disputed a debt. The credit bureau told you it had been verified. The account is still on your report. You assumed the dispute was over.
It is not.
What the Law Requires
Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, when a furnisher receives notice of a consumer dispute and elects to continue reporting the debt, the furnisher must report the account as disputed. The Fourth Circuit held this in Saunders v. Branch Banking and Trust Co. of Virginia, 526 F.3d 142 (4th Cir. 2008). The duty arises under 15 U.S.C. § 1681s-2(b). The notation must travel with the data, meaning every consumer report the furnisher generates after that point must show the "consumer disputes this account" indicator.
This is one of the most commonly violated and rarely policed FCRA duties. Furnishers ignore it routinely. Many do not even update their internal system to register the dispute. Their systems just keep pushing the same monthly data file to the bureaus, and the "disputed" indicator is blank.
The reason this matters: the disputed notation is not cosmetic. It has real-world effect. Lenders evaluating your application see it. Some lenders weigh it as neutral; some discount the disputed item entirely; some still hold it against you, but at least with the context that the consumer is challenging it. Without the notation, the data looks like an undisputed delinquency. The damage to your file is the same as if you had never disputed at all.
For consumers, the most important consequence is that "they did not mark it disputed" is, by itself, a Fair Credit Reporting Act claim against the furnisher.
Two Statutes, One Wrong
There is more. If the furnisher is a debt collector, a debt buyer, a third-party collection agency, or a creditor's lawyer collecting an account, the failure to note the dispute is also a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, specifically 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(8). That statute requires a debt collector that communicates information about a debt to refrain from "communicating or threatening to communicate to any person credit information which is known or which should be known to be false, including the failure to communicate that a disputed debt is disputed." Reporting to a credit bureau is a communication for purposes of § 1692e(8).
Two statutes. Two claims. One wrong.
How to Check Your Report
How to check whether the notation is on your report:
- 1. Pull your credit report from each of the three bureaus, by mail from annualcreditreport.com.
- 2. Find the tradeline for the disputed account.
- 3. Look in the account-detail block for a "consumer comments," "consumer statement," "remarks," or "status" field. The "disputed" notation typically appears as one of: - "Consumer disputes this account" - "Account in dispute by consumer" - "Dispute resolved, consumer disagrees" - A short code like "XB" or "XC" in the status field (codes vary by bureau) 4. If the field is blank or shows the debt as undisputed, the furnisher has either failed to update the notation or has affirmatively coded it as undisputed.
What to Do When It Is Missing
What to do when the notation is missing:
Send a follow-up dispute to the credit bureau pointing out specifically that the furnisher has not noted the account as disputed despite your earlier dispute. Cite Saunders v. BB&T by name in the letter. Send a parallel certified letter directly to the furnisher demanding immediate addition of the "consumer disputes this account" notation. If the furnisher is also a collector, demand cessation of any further reporting until the notation is added, and reference both § 1681s-2(b) and § 1692e(8) of the FDCPA.
Keep the post-dispute credit reports. They prove what was on your file on a specific date.
There is one further wrinkle worth knowing. Some furnishers, particularly debt buyers, coded the dispute internally but then removed the dispute notation after a period of time, treating the dispute as "resolved" once they answered the ACDV. Under Saunders and the cases that follow it, that does not satisfy the duty. The notation must remain on the report so long as the consumer continues to dispute the validity of the debt. The bureaus and furnishers do not want this rule to exist. Federal courts have repeatedly affirmed that it does.
If you have disputed an account, the bureau has come back "verified," and the disputed notation is missing or has disappeared from your report, you may have claims under both the FCRA and the FDCPA. Call us at (757) 930-3660 or request a free case review. The fee-shifting provisions of both statutes mean there is no out-of-pocket cost to you.
Why the Notation Has Real Value
It is easy to dismiss this as a cosmetic field, and lenders treat it as anything but.
A tradeline showing a delinquency with no dispute notation reads as settled fact: the consumer owes it and did not contest it. The same tradeline marked as disputed reads as contested, and underwriters handle the two differently. Some discount the item, some weigh it as neutral, some still hold it against you but with the context that you are challenging it.
That difference is the harm. Without the notation, the data looks like an uncontested delinquency, and the effect on your file is identical to having never disputed at all.
Finding It on the Report
The field is not labelled the same way at every bureau, which is part of why consumers miss it.
Look in the account detail block for a consumer comments, consumer statement, remarks, or status field. The notation can appear as text such as consumer disputes this account or account in dispute by consumer, or as a short code in the status field, and the codes vary by bureau.
If the field is blank, or the account is coded as undisputed, the furnisher has either failed to update it or has affirmatively marked it the other way.
Check all three reports. The furnisher may have updated one and not the others, which is its own problem given that a furnisher correcting information is supposed to correct it with every bureau it reported to.
Common Questions
What is the disputed notation on a credit report?
An indicator showing that the consumer has disputed the account. A furnisher that receives notice of a dispute and continues reporting the debt is required to report it as disputed.
Where does that duty come from?
Is a missing notation really a claim on its own?
It can be. The failure to report the account as disputed is itself a reporting inaccuracy, separate from whether the underlying debt is owed.
How does the FDCPA fit in?
How do I check whether the notation is there?
Pull all three reports and look in the account detail for a consumer comments, remarks, or status field. A blank field, or a code indicating no dispute, is the problem.
What should I do if it is missing?
Send a follow up dispute to each bureau specifically stating that the furnisher has failed to report the account as disputed, and keep the post dispute reports that show the field blank.
Note on Case Results
PAST RESULTS DO NOT GUARANTEE, WARRANT, OR PREDICT FUTURE OUTCOMES. The cases discussed above are factual examples from the public record. Every case is different. Some of the verdicts, judgments, or rulings referenced were modified on appeal, by post-trial motions, or by settlement. The outcome of any future case depends on the specific facts, applicable law, defendants involved, and many other variables that cannot be predicted from prior results.
This page is for general informational purposes only. It is not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship between you and Consumer Litigation Associates, P.C.
Leonard A. Bennett, VSB #37523, responsible for content. Consumer Litigation Associates, P.C., Newport News, Virginia. Attorney advertising under the rules of the Virginia State Bar.