Steps to having items removed off your credit report

[CreditDetailer]

The source information has been edited with comments for further
clarification
source: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre34.shtm

Under the FCRA, both the consumer reporting company (Experian,
Equifax, & Transunion) and the information provider (that is, the
person, company, or organization that provides information about you
to a consumer reporting company i.e. Sears, Providian, Citi,
Washington Mutual, etc..) are responsible for correcting inaccurate or
incomplete information in your report. To take full advantage of your
rights under this law, contact the consumer reporting company
(Experian, Equifax, & Transunion) and the information provider.

Tell the consumer reporting company (Experian, Equifax, & Transunion),
in writing, what information you think is inaccurate.

Consumer reporting companies (Experian, Equifax, & Transunion) must
investigate the items in question — usually within 30 days — unless
they consider your dispute frivolous.

They also must forward all the relevant data you provide about the
inaccuracy to the organization that provided the information. After
the information provider receives notice of a dispute from the
consumer reporting company, it must investigate, review the relevant
information, and report the results back to the consumer reporting
company. If the information provider finds the disputed information is
inaccurate, it must notify all three nationwide consumer reporting
companies so they can correct the information in your file.

When the investigation is complete, the consumer reporting company
must give you the written results and a free copy of your report if
the dispute results in a change. (This free report does not count as
your annual free report under the FACT Act.) If an item is changed or
deleted, the consumer reporting company cannot put the disputed
information back in your file unless the information provider verifies
that it is accurate and complete. The consumer reporting company also
must send you written notice that includes the name, address, and
phone number of the information provider.

Tell the creditor or other information provider in writing that you
dispute an item. Many providers specify an address for disputes. If
the provider reports the item to a consumer reporting company, it must
include a notice of your dispute. And if you are correct — that is, if
the information is found to be inaccurate — the information provider
may not report it again.

~-~ added comments
Occasionally, accounts may get resold, mistakenly, to other companies
and the account may show up again on a credit report.
It happens, and you just need to know how to handle the situation.
Technically, this treated as a new creditor since it is a new company
collecting for an old company. It is not a reappearing item by the
same creditor, so it is new inaccurate information.

The simplest way to have these inaccurate items removed is to provide
the results you received from the first investigation to the bureaus
and explain in your letter that this is previous investigated item
that was already found to be inaccurate. Including the results of the
original report should be enough. However, if you need to take
additional steps, asking to have the account's accuracy verified
should result the same way as the original account.

So be sure to keep all records and documents from all requests to
bureaus as you may need them months or years in the future.

[CreditDetailer]

Here is a free template to mail to a bureau (5 different formats):
PDF
Word
Rich text
Plain text
Open Office

Found in the FILES section at right (http://groups.google.com/group/
creditrepairtips/files)
Name is: "Sample Dispute Letter Template"