Fair Credit Reporting Act
A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair
Credit Reporting Act
The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the
accuracy, fairness and privacy of information in the files of consumer
reporting agencies. There are many types of consumer reporting
agencies, including credit bureaus and specialty agencies (such as
agencies that sell information about check writing histories, medical
records, and rental history records). Here is a summary of your
major rights under the FCRA.
For more information, includinginformation about additional rights, go to
www.ftc.gov/credit
or
write to: Consumer Response Center, Room 130-A, Federal
Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington,
DC 20580.
• You must be told if information in your file has been used against you.
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 have the right to know what is in your file.
You may request and obtain all the information about you in the files of a
consumer reporting agency (your “file disclosure”). You will be
required to provide proper identification, which may include your
Social Security number. In many cases, the disclosure will be free.
You are entitled to a free file disclosure if:
• A person has taken adverse action against you because of
information in your credit report;
• You are the victim of identify theft and place a fraud alert in your file;
• Your file contains inaccurate information as a result of fraud;
• You are on public assistance;
• You are unemployed but expect to apply for employment within 60 days.
In addition, by September 2005 all consumers will be entitled to one
free disclosure every 12 months upon request from each nationwide
credit bureau and from nationwide specialty consumer reporting agencies. See www.ftc.gov/credit
for additional information.
• You have the right to ask for a credit score.
Credit scores are numerical summaries of your credit worthiness based on information
from credit bureaus. 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.
• You have the right to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information.
If you identify information in your file that is incomplete
or inaccurate and report it to the consumer reporting agency, the
agency must investigate unless your dispute is frivolous. See www.ftc.gov/credit
for an explanation of dispute procedures.
• Consumer reporting agencies must correct or delete
inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information.
Inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information must be removed or
corrected, usually within 30 days. However, a consumer reporting
agency may continue to report information it has verified as accurate.
• Consumer reporting agencies may not report outdated negative information.
In most cases, a consumer reporting agency
may not report negative information that is more than seven years
old, or bankruptcies that are more than 10 years old.
• Access to your file is limited.
A consumer reporting agency may provide information about you only to people with a valid need
usually to consider an application with a creditor, insurer, employer,
landlord, or other business. The FCRA specifies those with a valid need for access.
• You must give your consent for reports to be provided to
employers.
A consumer reporting agency may not give out
information about you to your employer, or a potential employer,
without your written consent given to the employer. Written consent
generally is not required in the trucking industry. For more information, go to
www.ftc.gov/credit
• You may limit “prescreened” offers of credit and insurance
you get based on information in your credit report.
Unsolicited “prescreened” offers for credit and insurance must include a toll-free
phone number you can call if you choose to remove your name and
address from the lists these offers are based on. You may opt-out
with the nationwide credit bureaus at 1-888-567-8688.
• You may seek damages from violators.
If a consumer reporting agency, or, in some cases, a user of consumer reports or a furnisher
of information to a consumer reporting agency violates the FCRA,
you may be able to sue in state or federal court.
• Identity theft victims and active duty military personnel have
additional rights.
For more information, visit www.ftc.gov/credit
