The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) sets the rules for credit reporting as it applies to creditors, debt collectors, credit counseling organizations, and credit bureaus. The FCRA does not contain any language banning pay for delete, so it’s legal. But before you get too excited, bear in mind that you can deploy pay for delete only on items that are incomplete or inaccurate. The FCRA’s scope means you can’t have accurate items removed from your credit report. If you try to use questionable techniques to remove accurate items, you may, in fact, be breaking the law. Any pay for delete agreement you reach with a debt collector should be documented in writing in case you need to enforce the deal. Normally, you must first pay off the debt before the collector will remove the item, so a written agreement is required to ensure compliance. Understand that without the agreement in place, the collector is under no obligation to remove items from your credit report, but they’re also not under any restriction to do so. There is no reason for a dispute to ever hurt your credit. At worst, it may have no impact on your credit score.