Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Ohio

If you paid late, your credit record can show this. But if they are incorrectly showing a balance still due and owing when you paid the debt, then your dispute is with the credit bureau showing the derogatory credit reference. You will want to send a letter to any credit bureau showing that incorrect information, ask for an investigation into the validity of the information, and provide the credit bureau with copies showing that the debt was paid. They will only have a certain amount of time to do the investigation the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires.

If they do not change the report to reflect correct information, then you can file a lawsuit against the credit reporting agency under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. But I think that you will find that if you send in information that clearly establishes that the credit reporting agency's information on you is wrong, they will want to correct it. The credit reporting agencies want to have correct information for their customers. There are careless credit reporting agencies however, and that is what the FCRA is there for.