Maryland’s statutes allow you to request and review your three consumer credit reports once per year. The Maryland Financial Regulations page notes you may also file a complaint when attempting to resolve disputes related to information on your credit reports.
As a Maryland resident, you have the right to dispute the accuracy of the information listed on your credit reports. After submitting a written dispute to a credit-reporting agency, it must investigate and respond within 30 days.
Reviewing the results of an investigation
Agencies must verify the data on your credit report and correct errors or add missing information. While investigating, agencies must delete unverifiable or inaccurate information from your report. They must also notify you in writing about any updates or corrections made.
If an agency could not change or verify your data, it must provide a written notice. The law allows you to dispute an investigation within 60 days of receiving an agency’s results. You may ask for a reinvestigation and a list of creditors the agency contacted. The agency must provide you with each creditor’s name, phone number and address within 30 days.
Filing a statement on your credit report
If a reinvestigation does not resolve the dispute, you may file a statement of 100 words or less explaining your dispute with a consumer credit reporting agency. The agency must then include it with your file.
Debt collectors using scare tactics may face legal action. As reported by Money.com, aggressive collectors may harass debtors to obtain payments. In some cases, they may report a debtor’s past-due account twice. Asking a debt collection agency to remove a duplicate account in writing may serve as proof of harassment if it remains uncorrected.