Your background check has a wrong record on it.
10,333 complaints about six specialty screening companies reached the federal regulator in twelve months, and not one of them was closed with any relief for the person who complained.
The clocks are fixed: 60 days from the adverse action to request your free report copy, then 30 days for the screening company to conclude a dispute investigation — 45 days if you send additional information while it is running. Put the date on your denial letter in and get the actual dates.
Runs entirely in your browser — the date is never sent to us and never stored. General information based on FCRA consumer rights as explained in FTC and CFPB guidance. Sources re-checked September 28, 2026: 9 of 9 unchanged. Your denial letter and the agencies' own pages govern your case.
Or let the Screening Dispute Kit write the letters.
“My background check has someone else's record on it.”
We hear this most. a thread title on r/AttorneysHelp, read September 3, 2026 — from someone in the same position.
A phone call starts no clock; a letter starts 30 days.
Your written dispute is the clock: 30 days from the day the screening company receives it. You get up to 15 more if you send new evidence while it runs, under 15 U.S.C. §1681i(a)(1). What it cannot verify by then, it must delete or correct.
Here is the one number that tells you which route is worth your evening. Over the same twelve months, on the same regulator, Equifax closed 46% of the complaints it closed with relief and TransUnion 42%. So a complaint to the regulator is not the thing that moves this. The clock is, and the clock is in the statute.
What to do tonight →Free, and it stays free. Nothing on this page sits behind a payment, an account, or a form — and we never ask for your name, your Social Security number, or your case. The tools here run entirely in your browser; we never see your answers.
The screening company gets 30 days. Under 15 U.S.C. §1681i(a)(1)(A) it must reinvestigate free of charge, before the end of the 30-day period beginning on the date on which the agency receives the notice of the dispute
. Section 1681i(a)(1)(B) adds that the period may be extended for not more than 15 additional days
when you send relevant information. That is 30 days, extended by up to 15 further days – 45 days in total.
When it finishes, it owes you the result in writing within 5 business days, under §1681i(a)(6). An item that is inaccurate or incomplete or cannot be verified
must be deleted or modified, under §1681i(a)(5)(A). We read one trap there on October 8, 2026. Section 1681i(a)(3) lets a company close a dispute it calls frivolous, including one with too little to investigate. Name the entry and attach 1 piece of proof, and that trap does not apply.
Read at govinfo.gov, United States Code, 2023 edition, on October 8, 2026.
An employer must hand you 2 things before it acts on a background check. Under 15 U.S.C. §1681b(b)(3)(A) those are a copy of the report and a written summary of your rights. People call that letter a pre-adverse action notice. If 1 arrives, dispute now: the decision is not final yet.
After it acts, the notice has 3 jobs under 15 U.S.C. §1681m(a). Under §1681m(a)(3)(A) it names the company that furnished the report, with its address and phone number. The notice also says, under §1681m(a)(3)(B), that this company did not make the decision. Your free copy and your right to dispute come under §1681m(a)(4). The free copy is yours if you ask within 60 days, under 15 U.S.C. §1681j(b). So send the dispute to the screening company and the request to wait to the employer. Only the first of the 2 letters starts a clock.
A background check dispute takes 1 letter, not a lawyer. You call a lawyer when:
On what a win can pay for, we quote the regulator. We read its answer page on tenant screening denials on October 8, 2026: If you sue under this federal law and win, you may be able to recover damages and your attorney fees.
The same page warns that lawsuit deadlines apply, so a job lost months ago is a reason to call this week.
The National Association of Consumer Advocates runs a Find an Attorney directory of consumer lawyers, searchable by area and type of case. Credit reporting is 1 of its listed case types, and NACA says it covers credit report errors. Before you agree to anything, ask how they charge.
If paying a lawyer is out of reach, the Legal Services Corporation's Find Legal Aid page takes your address and names the LSC-funded legal aid organization for it. LSC says it funds civil legal aid for low-income Americans.
We take no referral fee from NACA, LSC or any lawyer, and Axion Labs passes nothing you type here to them.
Disputes fix errors. They don't erase history that's true — accurate records survive investigation. If the record is real, what helps is settling and documenting it, second-chance programs, and time. We built this site for honest people hit by wrong records.
If you would rather not assemble it by hand: the Screening Dispute Kit (USD 39) writes the letter to the screening company and the one to whoever turned you down, dates your clock and gives you the CFPB text, in your browser. Everything above stays free.
Now you know the background check dispute goes to the screening company in writing, that it has 30 days from the day your letter arrives, and that the employer gets a separate note asking it to wait.
If you have phoned the screening company 2 times already, I would stop phoning. Put the wrong line, the reason and the proof on 1 page. Send it so you can show the date it arrived. The same night, send the employer a 2-line note. That is the whole method: 2 letters and a stamp.
— Andrew at Axion Labs. Write to me at hello@getaxionlabs.com if a page here is wrong or a step does not work. I read that inbox.Next, on this site: A background check cost you the job: the two letters · Which of the two companies can actually fix it · A criminal record on your report that is not yours · Tenant screening denied: the same clock for an apartment.
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