You're thinking of the Fair Credit Reporting Act of the USA which federally regulates credit reporting. In Canada, credit reporting is provincially regulated by the various provincial consumer reporting acts. We don't have reverse onus here, at least, not effectively. You are guilty unless you can prove otherwise - and even then. Read the earlier posts by Footloose and DanielBl on the stuff that goes on for details.

By reverse onus, I mean the onus has been reversed on the consumer to prove that what the bureaus have on file is incorrect; the bureaus' standard of proof is to accept whatever info creditors and collection agencies send them as correct. Obviously, this priority has allowed a lot of abuse to occur by collection agencies and debt buyers through their deliberate misuse of reporting dates and hard inquiries as punitive tools instead of information gathering tools.

Really? I thought it was like what i read on the fico forums that a company must validate a debt when its disputed?

Don't bother disputing it because credit bureau reporting doesn't work on the reverse onus principle in this country. The bureaus automatically accept whatever their high fee paying lender and collection agency members report to them at the beginning of each month. It might seem like an exaggeration but they are gods far as the bureaus are concerned; your complaints - even when valid and documented - are only a nuisance to them, worthy of perfunctory attention, at best.

Besides, to dispute it, you would have to provide a copy of the on-time payment receipt/statement on the account which never happened in the first place.

Hi New here!

I have a question. I pulled me credit report and noticed a 30 day late payment on my bestbuy card 4 years ago. The bestbuy card was administered by hsbc, since then my accou t has been closed as bestbuy switched to visa to run their bestbuy card so now its a bestbuy visa. Is it worth filing a disbute with the bureaus on the off chance that hsbc wont be able to validate that late payment? Whats the chance it will work and deleted from my credit file?

Thanks!!