The Fair Credit Reporting Act (fcra) And You

Your credit report gets viewed by other people besides credit
grantors Potential employers and insurance companies can deny
you employment, auto and home owner’s insurance based on your
credit report Understand your rights protected by The Fair
Credit Reporting Act
No matter what many credit counseling scam artists may try to
tell you, no one can legally remove any information that is
up-to-date and accurate from your credit report They can’t do
it, and you can’t do it yourself However, you CAN request an
investigation of anything you find in your credit file that you
believe to be either incomplete or inaccurate That is perfectly
legal, and can be done at NO cost to you In fact, anything that
a credit repair company offers to do for you can be done
yourself, generally free or for a nominal fee
In fact, there’s a law that guarantees it It’s called the Fair
Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) Under provisions of the FCRA, you
are entitled to receive a free credit report if a company denies
your application for credit, employment, or insurance You must
ask for the report within sixty days of the refusal, and the
company must tell you which credit reporting company they used,
and provide you with their address and phone number (The three
nationwide companies most often used are Experian, TransUnion,
and Equifax)
The FCRA has made it mandatory for consumer credit reporting
companies to correct information that’s incorrect or inaccurate
To correct inaccuracies, you must first contact the reporting
company, in writing, telling them which information is incorrect
or incomplete In your correspondence, include copies of
documents that will verify your claim (Don’t send originals!)
Clearly detail why each piece of disputed information is
incorrect, and then ask that the inaccurate information be
either corrected or removed from your file completely It’s
generally worthwhile to include a copy of the credit report
itself, with each disputed item circled
Once you’ve put your package together, send it to the company in
question by certified mail, indicating “return receipt
requested” That will allow you to be certain that the company
received your package Also keep copies of everything for
yourself, of course!
The FCRA makes it mandatory that the reporting company
investigate each item you have disputed, often within thirty
days, unless they consider your dispute to be unworthy of
researching further By law, they must also forward everything
you have provided them on to whatever company or organization
initially provided the disputed information in the first place
That provider must then review and investigate the situation and
report back to the reporting company If the provider has
mistakenly provided inaccurate information, they must correct it
with all three major reporting companies
Once the investigation has been completed, the FCRA mandates
that the reporting company must provide you with the results, in
writing, and a free copy of the report if the investigation
resulted in a change in your credit report information You may
also request that a copy of the amended credit report be sent to
anyone who may have received the disputed report during the
previous six months If the report was given to potential
employers, you have a right to request that a corrected report
be sent to any employer who may have received the inaccurate
report during the past two years
Copyright © Jeanette J Fisher

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