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A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is designed to
promote accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information in the files of every
"consumer reporting agency" (CRA). Most CRAs
are credit bureaus that gather and sell information about you-such as if you
pay your bills on time or have filed bankruptcy-to creditors, employers,
landlords, and other businesses. You can find the complete text of the FCRA, 15
U.S.C. 1681-1681u, at the Federal Trade Commission's web site. The FCRA
gives you specific rights, as outlined below. You may have additional rights
under state law. You may contact a state or local consumer protection agency or
a state attorney general to learn those rights. You must be told if information in your file has been used against
you.
Anyone who uses information from a CRA to take action against you-such as
denying an application for credit, insurance or employment-must tell you, and
give you the name, address, and phone number of the CRA that provided the
consumer report. You can find out what is in your file. At your request, a CRA
must give you the information in your file, and a list of everyone who has
requested it recently. There is no charge for the report if a person has taken
action against you because of information supplied by the CRA, if you request
the report within 60 days of receiving notice of the action. You also are
entitled to one free report every twelve months if you certify that (1) you are
unemployed and plan to seek employment within 60 days, (2) you are on welfare,
or (3) your report is inaccurate due to fraud. Otherwise, a CRA may charge you
up to eight dollars. You can dispute inaccurate information with the CRA. If you tell a CRA that
your file contains inaccurate information, the CRA must investigate the items
(usually within 30 days) by presenting to its information source all relevant
evidence you submit, unless your dispute is frivolous. The source must review
your evidence and report its finding to the CRA. (The source also must advise
national CRAs-to which it has provided data-of any
error.) The CRA must give you a written report of the investigation,
and a copy of your report if the investigation results in any change. If the CRA's investigation does not resolve the dispute, you may
add a brief statement to your file. The CRA must normally include a summary of
your statement in future reports. If an item is deleted or a dispute statement
is filed, you may ask that anyone who has recently received your report may be
notified of the change. Inaccurate information must be corrected or deleted. A CRA must remove or
correct inaccurate or unverified information for its files, usually within 30
days after you dispute it. However, the CRA is not required to remove
accurate data from your file unless it is outdated (as described below) or
cannot be verified. If your dispute results in any change to your report,
the CRA cannot reinsert into your file a disputed item unless the information
source verifies its accuracy and completeness. In addition, the CRA must give
you a written notice telling you it has reinserted the item. The notice must
include the name, address and phone number of the information source. You can dispute inaccurate items with the source of the
information. If you tell anyone-such as a creditor who reports to a CRA-that
you dispute an item, they may not then report the information to a CRA without
including a notice of your dispute. In addition, once you've notified the
source of the error in writing, it may not continue to report the information if
it is, in fact, an error. Outdated information may not be reported. In most cases, a CRA
may not report negative information that is more than seven years old; ten
years for bankruptcies. Access to your file is limited. A CRA may provide information about you
only to people with a need recognized by the FCRA-usually to consider an
application with a creditor, insurer, employer, landlord, or other business. Your consent is required for reports that are provided to
employers, or reports that contain medical information. A CRA may not give out
information about you to your employer, or prospective employer, without your
written consent. A CRA may not report medical information about you to
creditors, insurers, or employers without your permission. You may choose to exclude your name from CRA lists for unsolicited
credit and insurance offers. Creditors and insurers may use file information
as the basis for sending you unsolicited offers of credit or insurance. Such
offers must include a toll-free pone number for your
to call if you want your name and address removed from future lists. If you
call, you must be kept off the lists for two years. If you request, complete,
and return the CRA form provided for this purpose, you must be taken off the
lists indefinitely. You may seek damages from violators. If a CRA, a user or (in
some cases) a provider of CRA data, violates the FCRA, you may sue them in
state or federal court. The FCRA gives several different federal agencies authority to
enforce the FCRA:
Source: Trans Union |
