Rights For Consumers Under The FCRA

By Amanda L Carter

The Federal Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA is a United States federal law that regulates the compilation and dissemination of consumer credit information. It is a safety measure for the equality, truthfulness and confidentiality of individual credit information that is obtained by the credit reporting agencies. The law was first enacted back in 1970 and the most recent amendment was in December 2003.

Credit reports are highly utilized in the United States. In the beginning a credit report was utilized only to estimate the creditworthiness of an individual for the purpose of getting credit. Now credit reports are used for other things like insurance underwriting and even employment applications. At the current time it is entirely lawful for an individual to be denied insurance coverage or employment on the basis of the information contained in a credit report. A person can even be terminated from a job based upon credit report information.

Credit reporting agencies amass, compile and vend credit information on consumers. There are three main credit-reporting companies in the United States. They are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

The FCRA protects consumers from undue, incomplete and incorrect reporting on a credit report. Under this law a consumer has the right to dispute and challenge any information on a credit report that is imprecise, incomplete or erroneous in any way. As a consumer you have the alternative to issue a dispute to the credit companies. After delivery of your dispute letter they will have 30 days in which to either verify the accuracy of their reporting or to remove it from your account.

The FCRA also offers consumers the right to be given one free credit report each year from each of the credit companies. This does not happen routinely but only after a request has been made. You are also allowed a credit report whenever you are turned down for credit on the basis of the information on the credit report. Whichever credit bureau is reporting the derogatory information must provide the report to the consumer upon request.

Many times poor credit listings are removed from credit reports after a dispute because the credit bureaus were unable to verify the correctness within the time period. If information is removed the credit bureaus can't reinstate the listing without notifying the consumer in writing.

The Federal Credit Reporting Act also governs the period of time that derogatory information can remain on a credit report. A listing cannot stay longer than 7 years following the delinquency for most items, however, a bankruptcy can stay on the report for 10 years and a tax lien for 7 years after it has been paid in full.

It is worth the time and energy it takes for a consumer to offer a dispute to the credit bureaus. It has been predicted that as many as 40% of all disputed listing are deleted because the information can't be substantiated within the time period. Accurate and truthful information should not be disputed and should remain on the credit report but a consumer should try to get all incorrect information removed through the dispute process presented by the Federal Credit Reporting Act. - 29866

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