Free, and it stays free. No signup, no account, no payment — 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.
After a denial based on a screening report, three clocks start. They are short, they are fixed by federal law, and almost nobody is told what they are. Put your date in below.
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 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, checked 2026-08-10. Your denial letter and the agencies' own pages govern your case.
| When | What happens | Whose move |
|---|---|---|
| Day 0 | Adverse action — you are denied, or offered worse terms, because of a consumer report. You must be told this happened and told which company supplied the report. | The landlord, employer or bank |
| Days 0–60 | Request your free copy of that report from the screening company. Federal guidance says within 60 days of the adverse action. It is the actual report, not the landlord's summary. | You |
| Day X | Read it line by line against your own records and dispute every inaccurate item in writing, with copies of your evidence attached. The dispute is free. | You |
| +30 days | The screening company is generally required to investigate and to correct or delete what it cannot verify. Typically 30 days from receiving your dispute. | The screening company |
| +45 days | The same, extended, where you supplied additional information during the investigation. | The screening company |
| After | If they verify something you know is wrong: add a statement of dispute to your file, complain free to the CFPB at consumerfinance.gov (companies must respond), and to your state attorney general. | You |
Every step above is free. Anyone charging you to exercise these rights is selling you a letter you can write yourself.
You are not out of options. The right to dispute an inaccurate item does not expire with the free-copy window, and you can still obtain your file — the free-after-adverse-action route is one way to get it, not the only way. Several screening companies provide a free disclosure once every twelve months regardless of any denial, and each company page here gives that company's own request route. Apply again elsewhere in the meantime, but pull the file: if the record blocking you is wrong, fixing it beats working around it.
Full plain-English walkthrough on our home page.
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.
General information based on FCRA consumer rights as explained in FTC and CFPB guidance, checked 2026-08-10. Not legal advice. Your denial letter and the agencies' official pages govern your case. Free help: your state attorney general, and complaints at consumerfinance.gov.