A new client signed on Tuesday and promised to send everything that night. It's Friday. The file still has no ID, no proof of address and no credit report, so nothing can be disputed, and your welcome email sits unopened in a promotions tab.
This is the real bottleneck in credit repair. Before any dispute goes out, you have to get paperwork from someone who would rather not think about their money. Below is the text sequence that closes that gap, plus the dispute-cycle updates that keep the client around once work starts.
Why the document chase decides the programme
A client who sends a complete file in week one makes the first dispute round. One who takes three weeks loses a cycle, sees no change after a month, and starts wondering what they're paying for. Mid-programme churn often starts here.
Text helps because each request is small. "Upload a photo of your license" is a thirty-second job when it arrives on the phone that takes the photo. So the sequence asks for one thing per message.
What a complete file means before the first text
Define "complete" before you automate the chase. For most shops it is four items:
- The signed agreement, with the disclosure statement the Credit Repair Organizations Act requires before the contract is signed.
- A government photo ID, front side, readable.
- Proof of address: a recent utility bill, bank statement or similar, matching the address the bureaus have.
- A current three-bureau credit report, from the monitoring service you use or, if the client has nothing, the free reports at AnnualCreditReport.com, which the three bureaus made available weekly on a permanent basis in 2023.
One firm rule: none of these travel by text. The text carries a link to your client portal and the documents go there. ID images and Social Security numbers should not sit in a message thread on a phone.
The onboarding sequence, day 0 to day 7
Each message has a trigger, a wait and a no-reply rule. Send between 10am and 7pm in the client's time zone. Every message comes from the same named person, because a client returns paperwork to a person sooner than to a company.
Text 1: the welcome (trigger: agreement signed, send within the hour)
Hi [First name], it's [Rep] at [Company]. Thanks for signing today. To get your first round of disputes ready I need 3 things, and I'll ask for them one at a time. First: a photo of the front of your driver's license or state ID, uploaded here: [portal link]. Please don't text the photo itself. Questions? Just reply. Reply STOP to opt out of texts.
One item, a reason, a reply path. A list of everything missing is how you get nothing back.
Text 2: the next item (trigger: ID received, send right away)
Got your ID, thank you. Next: a utility bill or bank statement from the last 60 days showing your current address. A phone photo is fine. Upload here: [portal link]
Send it the moment the upload lands, while the client still has the phone in hand.
Text 3: the nudge (trigger: no upload 48 hours after Text 1)
Hi [First name], [Rep] again. Still need that photo of your ID before I can start. If the link gave you trouble, reply HELP and I'll call you, or tell me a good time.
Change the offer, not the volume. Many stalls are a forgotten password or a link that won't open.
Text 4: the credit report (trigger: ID and address received)
Last thing: your current credit report from all 3 bureaus. If you already have [Monitoring service], log in and send me the report through the portal. If not, reply NEW and I'll walk you through getting one free.
Text 5: the day-7 check (trigger: file still incomplete on day 7)
[First name], your file is almost ready. The only thing missing is [item]. Once it's in, your first disputes go out. Want me to call you for 5 minutes tomorrow and do it together? Reply a time.
If day 7 passes with no reply at all, stop texting and have the same rep call. A fifth unanswered text reads as pressure.
Building the reply set your team actually uses
Replies to this sequence fall into a handful of types. In Android Texter these become quick replies: shortcuts like /blurry that expand into the full text in the composer, with a usage count so you can see which answers carry the load.
A starting set for a credit repair desk:
/blurry: "Thanks! That one came through blurry around the edges. Could you retake it flat on a table, in daylight, with all four corners in the frame?"/old: "That bill is a little older than the bureaus like. Anything from the last 60 days works, including a bank statement."/new: "No problem. Go to AnnualCreditReport.com (that exact address, it's the free official one), request all 3 bureaus, and save each as a PDF. Then upload them here: [portal link]"/when: "Your disputes go out within [X] business days of a complete file. The bureaus then have about 30 days to respond, and I'll text you as soon as anything comes back."
Note what /when doesn't say: how many items will come off, or by when. That's deliberate, and the last section explains why.
Dispute-cycle checkpoints: 30, 45 and 60 days
Once disputes are mailed, the client's worry is silence. The dispute calendar is set by statute, so the update schedule can be too. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, a bureau generally has 30 days from receiving a dispute to finish its reinvestigation, extended by up to 15 days if the consumer sends relevant information during that window. It then has five business days to send the results. Count each checkpoint from the day the bureaus received the letters, not from the day you mailed them.
Day 0 (disputes mailed):
[First name], your first round of disputes went out today to [bureaus]. They have about 30 days to respond once they receive them. Results come to you by mail too, so if you get anything from a bureau, snap a photo and upload it here: [portal link]
Day 30 (window closing):
Quick update: we're at the 30-day mark on round 1. Responses usually show up over the next week or two. Keep an eye on your mail, and upload anything from Equifax, Experian or TransUnion when it arrives.
Day 45 (results review):
Round 1 responses should be in or arriving now. Once I've reviewed them I'll post a short summary on the portal. Want to go over it on a call? Reply with a time.
Day 60 (round 2 decision): this one is a conversation, not a broadcast. The rep reviews the file and texts the client personally about what's going in round two.
These suit scheduled sends. Android Texter queues a message for a future time from the composer or the API's scheduled_at field, editable at /dashboard/scheduled. Queue day 30 and day 45 when the letters go out, and nobody has to remember in five weeks.
The client who goes quiet in month two
Silence in month two is different from silence in week one. The client hasn't lost the link; they've lost faith. Send something that asks for nothing and shows work is happening:
Hi [First name], [Rep] here. No action needed, I just wanted you to know round 2 went out on [date] and I'm watching for responses. If anything has changed (new address, new account, a letter you weren't sure about), reply here and I'll look at it.
No reply in a week means a call. Clients cancel quietly, and the save has to come before they decide.
Who owns the inbox
At a small shop the cleanest setup is one line per rep. Android Texter's multi-device pairing lets several Android phones join one account, each with its own name and number, while every conversation lands in one shared web inbox. The client always hears from the same person and the same number, and the owner can still see every thread.
Set up two automations on day one. An after-hours auto-reply ("Got it, I'll reply first thing tomorrow, [Rep]") stops a 10pm "did you get my ID?" from turning into a cancellation email. A forwarding rule can push inbound texts to a rep's own phone or a Telegram channel, so the upload confirmation goes out within minutes and not the next morning.
Why a handset? Credit repair is a category aggregators commonly restrict or refuse under A2P 10DLC. Android Texter sends from a real phone on a real carrier line as person-to-person SMS, outside A2P campaign vetting. That removes a gatekeeper, not any law.
The rules that change what you send
We covered the regulatory picture in Credit Repair SMS Compliance. We aren't lawyers and this is not legal advice. Three points shape the templates above:
- No payment asks in the sequence. The Credit Repair Organizations Act bars charging for a service before it is fully performed, and for sales made by telemarketing the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule adds a stricter advance-fee bar. Keep billing out of onboarding texts and have counsel approve any payment message.
- No result promises. The same section prohibits misrepresenting what you can do. "We'll get those collections removed" doesn't belong in a text, and that's why
/whentalks about timelines, not outcomes. - Respect the cancellation window. Clients can cancel until midnight of the third business day after signing, and no services may be provided before then. Use the window to gather documents if counsel agrees, and hold disputes until it closes.
The TCPA applies in full whatever the channel: get written consent to text at signup, keep the record, and honor STOP immediately. Our opt-out guide covers what counts.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can clients text me photos of their ID?
They can, but ask them not to. A text thread lives on a phone, gets backed up and gets forwarded. Send a link to your client portal and have documents uploaded there. Saying "please don't text me your ID" in the first message also tells the client you handle their data carefully.
How many follow-up texts are too many during onboarding?
In this sequence an unresponsive client gets at most four texts in seven days: the welcome, a 48-hour nudge, the credit report request if they got that far, and a day-7 check. After that, call. More texts rarely move a client who has stopped replying, and they make the relationship feel like a collections account.
When should I tell a client to expect dispute results?
Bureaus generally have 30 days from receiving a dispute to reinvestigate. That stretches to 45 if the consumer sends relevant information during the window, and then they have five business days to send results. So tell clients to expect responses roughly 30 to 45 days after the letters arrive, and schedule your update texts to match.
Can I schedule the 30 and 45 day updates in advance?
Yes. Android Texter queues messages for a future time from the composer or through the API's scheduled_at field, and you can edit or cancel anything queued from the scheduled messages screen. Most shops queue both updates the day disputes are mailed, then adjust them if the bureaus respond early.
Get the file in by Friday
A welcome text, a two-day nudge and a scheduled 30-day update will do more for retention than another email. If your platform won't approve a credit repair campaign, Android Texter runs this sequence from your own Android phone, with a shared inbox, quick replies and scheduled sends. Consent and content stay your responsibility.