Fair Credit Reporting Act

Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1681u, as amended) ensures the fairness, accuracy, and privacy of information gathered on individuals by consumer reporting agencies, such as credit bureaus.

Some of the most important protections afforded to consumers by this Act are:

• You must be informed if information in your file has been used against you.
• You have the right to know what is in your file.
• You have the right to ask for a credit score.
• You have the right to dispute any inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Consumer reporting agencies are required to correct or delete any information which is inaccurate, incomplete, or cannot be verified.
• Consumer reporting agencies cannot report outdated negative information.
• Access to your file is limited.
• You must consent before your report is given to employers.

More information regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act is listed below:

The Act protects information collected by consumer reporting agencies such as credit bureaus, medical information companies and tenant screening services. Information in a consumer report cannot be provided to anyone who does not have a purpose specified in the Act. Companies that provide information to consumer reporting agencies also have specific legal obligations, including the duty to investigate disputed information. Also, users of the information for credit, insurance, or employment purposes must notify the consumer when an adverse action is taken on the basis of such reports. Further, users must identify the company that provided the report, so that the accuracy and completeness of the report may be verified or contested by the consumer. The Red Flag Program Clarification Act of 2010(Pub. L. 111-319, 124 Stat. 3457) clarifies and narrows the meaning of “creditor” for purposes of the Red Flags provisions.

The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, the Credit CARD Act and Dodd-Frank Act (see below), made a number of substantial changes to this Act.

Fair Credit and Charge Card Disclosure Act (codified in sections of the U.S. Code, particularly 15 U.S.C. 1637(c)-(g))This Act, amending the Truth in Lending Act, requires credit and charge card issuers to provide certain disclosures in direct mail, telephone and other applications and solicitations to open-end credit and charge accounts and under other circumstances.