Consumer Protections on Credit Reports

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is a federal law that promotes the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information maintained by credit bureaus. Consumer protections under the FCRA include:

• Anyone who uses a credit report or another type of consumer report to deny your application for credit, insurance, or employment – or to take another adverse action against you – must tell you, and must give you the name, address, and phone number of the agency that provided the information.


• You may request and obtain all the information about you maintained by a credit bureau. You are entitled to a free copy of your credit report:
  
  • Once every 12 months;
  • If a person or business has taken adverse action against you because of information in your credit report;
  • If you are the victim of identity theft and place a fraud alert in your file;
  • If your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud;
  • If you are on public assistance; or
  • If you are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days.


• You may request a credit score from consumer reporting agencies that create scores or distribute scores used in residential real property loans, but you will have to pay for it. In some mortgage transactions, you will receive credit score information for free from the mortgage lender.


• If you identify information in your file that is incomplete or inaccurate and report it to a credit bureau, it must investigate unless your dispute is frivolous. CLICK HERE (Trusted Partner Link) for information from the Federal Trade Commission about disputing errors on your credit report.


• Inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information must be removed or corrected, usually within 30 days. However, a credit bureau may continue to report information it has verified as accurate.


• In most cases, a credit bureau may not report negative information that is more than seven years old or bankruptcies that are more than 10 years old.


• A credit bureau may not give out information about you to your employer, or a potential employer, without your written consent.