Frequently Asked Questions

I go through your full credit report across all major credit bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — as well as specialty reporting agencies like Innovis and SageStream — looking for errors, FCRA violations, Metro 2 compliance issues, and items that shouldn't legally be there. For each one I find, I write a dispute letter from scratch. No templates, no copy-paste. Every letter is tied to the specific legal standard that applies to that exact item, so the bureau actually has to investigate it.

Most people start seeing results in 30–45 days. The FCRA requires bureaus to investigate disputes within 30 days — so that's the natural first checkpoint. How long the full process takes depends on how many items are on your report and how many rounds it takes. Most clients wrap up in 3–6 months. The Accelerator and Premium plans file more frequently, which can speed things up.

Yes — completely legal. The Fair Credit Reporting Act explicitly gives you the right to dispute anything on your report that's inaccurate, unverifiable, or unfair. That right exists whether you do it yourself or hire someone. CreditForge operates under CROA, which means written contracts, full pre-service disclosure, a 3-day right to cancel, and no charging before work is done.

We offer three plans to fit different needs:

• •Essential — $99/mo: 1 bureau per round, monthly disputes, AI dispute letters, real-time dashboard
• •Accelerated — $149/mo: All 3 bureaus per round, bi-weekly disputes, furnisher direct disputes, score tracking & progress reports
• •Premium — $199/mo: All 3 bureaus per round, weekly disputes, 1-on-1 credit coaching, Credit Builder plan, plus everything in Accelerated

You can cancel anytime with no cancellation fees. Your initial credit analysis is completely free.

Anything inaccurate, unverifiable, or unfair is fair game. Here's what comes up most often:

• •Collections with incorrect balances or dates
• •Charge-offs with wrong account information
• •Late payments reported in error
• •Duplicate accounts appearing on your report
• •Identity errors and mixed credit files
• •Outdated negative items (older than 7 years)
• •Accounts missing required Metro 2 data fields
• •Fraudulent accounts from identity theft

Metro 2 is the data format creditors use when they report your account to the bureaus. It has very specific field requirements — dates, account types, status codes, all of it. When a creditor skips or misreports a required field, that's a violation. Common ones: missing Date of First Delinquency, wrong account status code, balance reported incorrectly. These violations are legitimate grounds for a dispute, and they're the kind of thing that usually gets buried in a stack of pages. I find them automatically.

Every client gets a portal. You don't have to wonder what's happening — it's all there:

• •View the status of every dispute in real time
• •Track your credit score with visual progress charts
• •Download all dispute letters and bureau responses
• •Use Credit Builder tools (score simulator, card recommendations)
• •Message Jess directly
• •Access your account 24/7 from any device

First dispute not working? That happens. Bureaus verify items all the time — sometimes it's real, sometimes they just didn't look hard enough. When that happens, I don't send the same letter again. I look at their response, figure out what angle they responded to, and escalate with a Method of Verification request, a different legal basis, or go straight to the creditor. A lot of items take 2–3 rounds. That's normal and expected. The Premium plan includes direct creditor negotiations for the harder cases.

Yes, anytime. No contracts, no cancellation fees. Just cancel and it stops. CROA also gives you a 3-business-day window after signing to cancel for any reason and get a full refund — that's federal law, not a marketing claim.

No — and you should be skeptical of anyone who says they can. Under CROA, it's actually illegal to guarantee a specific score increase. What I can tell you is that every dispute I file is built from scratch, tied to the actual law, and escalated if the first round doesn't work. I don't guarantee a number. I guarantee the work.