Consumer Protections Under The Federal Credit Reporting Act

by Credit Report

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 precaution for the fairness, truthfulness and confidentiality of private 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 reporting is giant business in the United States.  Credit reports are utilized for their original and fair reason of evaluating the creditworthiness of an person to borrow money and now they are also being utilized for such things as insurance underwriting and employment.  As of right now it is fully lawful to be turned down for employment or insurance on the basis of your credit report.

A credit-reporting agency is a business that collects, compiles and sells credit information on consumers.  In the United States there are three key credit-reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax.

The FCRA was enacted to protect consumers from incomplete, unjust and wrong information on a credit report.  It gives consumers the right to dispute and challenge any information on a credit report that is judged to be incorrect or erroneous in any way.   If there is deceptive information showing on your credit report you have the option to issue a dispute to the credit bureaus.  They will have 30 days from acknowledgment of your dispute to either corroborate the truthfulness of what they are reporting or remove it from your report.

The Federal Credit Reporting Act also gives consumers the right to get one free credit report from every credit-reporting bureau one time per year.  The consumer just needs to put in a request.  You also have the right to receive a report if credit is denied because of what is contained on the credit report.  The credit bureau that is reporting the uncertain information must provide the consumer a credit report so that the consumer knows exactly why they were turned down for credit.

Frequently derogatory information is removed from credit reports based upon disputes. If the information is deleted from a credit report because of a dispute the credit bureaus can’t reinstate the information unless they give notice to the consumer in writing. You can visit http://724credit.com for more information.

The FCRA also clearly outlines the amount of time that poor information can be retained on a credit report.  Most often all listings can only remain on the credit report for 7 years from the instance of delinquency.  A bankruptcy can remain on the report for 10 years and a tax lien can stay for 7 years once it is paid off.

It is well worth a consumers time to take advantage of the rights offered by the FCRA because it is predicted that as many as 40% of all disputed information is not suitably validated within the time limit.  Consumers should be conscious, however, that all correct and truthful information should not be disputed but should stay on the credit report.

Your credit score is more important than you may be aware of, To learn more about fixing your credit visit 724Credit.com!

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