One of our customers is submitting repeated disputes about information on a credit report. We responded as required and confirmed that the information is accurate. Do we need to continue responding? Should we provide a “Notice of Termination of Customer Dispute” form?

No, you are not required to continue investigating and responding to the disputes. If you can demonstrate that the disputes are “frivolous or irrelevant,” or that they originate from a credit repair organization, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and Regulation V exempt you from investigating the disputes. And yes, you should provide notice when you have determined that you no longer will investigate a customer’s repeated disputes within five business days of making the determination.

One (of several) exemptions to the investigation requirement applies to disputes that are “frivolous or irrelevant.” For example, a dispute can be treated as frivolous or irrelevant if you have “reasonably determined” that it “is substantially the same” as previous disputes submitted by or on behalf of the same customer, provided that there is no new information included on the dispute form. Another exemption applies when disputes are originated by a credit repair organization, which is an organization that sells credit repair services to consumers. This exemption applies if you have “a reasonable belief” that a credit repair organization submitted the dispute, prepared the dispute, or provided a form that your customer used to submit the dispute.

If you determine that an exception applies, you must notify the customer within five business days of making the determination, and the notice must include “the reasons for such determination.”

For resources related to our guidance, please see:

Regulation V, 12 CFR 1022.43(f)(1)(ii) (The requirement to investigate disputes does not apply if “the direct dispute is substantially the same as a dispute previously submitted by or on behalf of the consumer, either directly to the furnisher or through a consumer reporting agency, with respect to which the furnisher has already satisfied the applicable requirements of the Act or this section; provided, however, that a direct dispute is not substantially the same as a dispute previously submitted if the dispute includes information listed in paragraph (d) of this section that had not previously been provided to the furnisher.”)

Regulation V, 12 CFR 1022.43(b)(2) (The requirement to investigate disputes does not apply if “the furnisher has a reasonable belief that the direct dispute is submitted by, is prepared on behalf of the consumer by, or is submitted on a form supplied to the consumer by, a credit repair organization . . . .”)

Regulation V, 12 CFR 1022.43(f)(2) (“(2) Upon making a determination that a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant, the furnisher must notify the consumer of the determination not later than five business days after making the determination, by mail or, if authorized by the consumer for that purpose, by any other means available to the furnisher.”)

Regulation V, 12 CFR 1022.43(f)(3) (“(3) A notice of determination that a dispute is frivolous or irrelevant must include the reasons for such determination and identify any information required to investigate the disputed information, which notice may consist of a standardized form describing the general nature of such information.”)