Thursday, November 5, 2009

The Protection For Consumers In The Federal Credit Reporting Act


By Shirley O Allen

In 1970, the United States government enacted the Federal Credit Reporting Act or the FCRA. This law governs the collection and dissemination of consumer credit information. It ensures the accurateness, fairness and privacy of private credit information that is collected by credit reporting bureaus. The most recent amendment to the law was in December 2003.

Credit reports are common and commonly utilized in the United States. The fundamental intention of a credit report was to evaluate the creditworthiness of someone for acquiring credit but at the present credit reports are also used for such things as insurance underwriting and employment applications. As of this time, it is totally legal for a person to be turned down for insurance or denied or terminated employment based on what is contained in a credit report.

Credit reporting agencies collect, compile and sell credit information on consumers. There are three major credit-reporting bureaus in the United States. They are Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.

The Federal Credit Reporting Act protects consumers from unfair, incomplete and erroneous reporting on a credit report. Under this law a consumer has the right to dispute and contest any information on a credit report that is inaccurate, incomplete or erroneous in any way. As a consumer you have the opportunity to offer a dispute to the credit companies. After acknowledgment of your dispute letter they will have 30 days in which to either corroborate the accuracy of their coverage or to delete it from your credit report.

The FCRA also provides consumers the right to take delivery of one free credit report each year from each of the credit companies. This does not happen automatically but only after a request has been made. You are also permitted a credit report anytime you are turned down for credit on the basis of the information on the report. Whichever credit bureau is reporting the poor information must supply the report to the consumer upon request.

Negative information on credit reports often gets removed because of disputes. If information is removed because of a dispute, the credit bureau cannot restore it on to your report without notifying you in writing.

The FCRA in addition clearly outlines the period of time that poor information can be retained on a credit report. Most often all listings can only stay 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 remain for 7 years once it is paid off.

It is worth the time and energy it takes for a consumer to provide a dispute to the credit bureaus. It has been predicted that as many as 40% of all disputed listing are removed because the information can't be proven within the time period. Accurate and truthful information should not be disputed and should remain on the report but a consumer should try to get all incorrect information removed through the dispute process given by the FCRA.

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